Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SeaClear (SEarch, identificAtion and Collection of marine Litter with Autonomous Robots)
Período documentado: 2023-01-01 hasta 2023-12-31
The SeaClear system will be displayed at three demo sites where an autonomous robot system will be verified: one demo site location for the purpose of cleaning ports in the Hamburg port area with the end-user Hamburg Port Authority (Germany), another two in the area of Dubrovnik, namely near Lokrum Island and one in the area of the Mali Ston Bay, with Regional agency DUNEA (Croatia) as end-user for these areas. With these three demo sites, SeaClear has an overview in completely different sectors, given the fact that we have a pilot site of port location emphasizing maritime industries and two other locations representing protected nature areas, one from the tourism sector and the other from the mariculture sector, namely the shellfish industry. By including all of the mentioned areas, the SeaClear system will face different waste fractions, both from inland and sea origin, and obstacles that need to be solved in order for such a system to be fully functional.
Important highlights include: A cost effectiveness study based on the current development status has been set up, benchmarking the robotic system with divers, proving SeaClears positive impact in terms of cost and performance. The robot hardware in the system (USV, inspection UUV, collection UUV, gripper, collection basket, and interfaces) has been developed and integrated, including fully novel gripper and an advanced design of the collection basket. The SeaCat USV has been equipped with 3 launching and recovery systems for the 2 ROVs and the basket. Video and acoustic detection and classification sensors have been selected and added to the USV and the ROVs. In addition, complete hardware integration and trials have been conducted in Marseilles.
Automated lawnmower mapping has been demonstrated in the field tests, and proof-of-concept lab experiments have been performed in path-planning for fast, active mapping. Moreover, we have successfully carried out the automatic litter collection sequence in field demonstrations, and demonstrated the data-driven online learning control framework in simulations. In addition, field demonstrations showed autonomous coordinated control of the tethered UAV landing procedure and of the cable slack.
A dataset with underwater images has been generated and enhanced; this is currently the largest publicly available data set of labelled underwater litter. In addition, it is the first underwater litter data set for shallow-water environments. We have designed an improved image-enhancement and sensor fusion pipeline for underwater object classification via convolutional neuronal networks. Moreover, a state-of-the-art deep learning architecture has been developed for the underwater litter detection and classification, including successful validation in real-time application in Bistrina.
The SeaClear‘s Shore Operation Center, consisting of an end-user-oriented web application and a standalone operator application, has been deployed and validated. In addition, the final network topology layout has been deployed during sea trials and final demonstrations. We successfully demonstrated the SeaClear system in operational environments in Hamburg and Dubrovnik. The results of these demonstrations have been thoroughly analysed and used to benchmark our project against the various KPIs defined in the project proposal.
We had impactful press releases for tests and demos, with TV, online, and print appearances including e.g. a dedicated ZDF documentary and prime-time-news appearances, with a total estimated reach in the millions of people. In addition, we have set up active social media channels, complemented by intense outreach at e.g. trade fairs, museum exhibitions, and science popularization events. We also developed educational material including cartoons, school lesson templates, and infographics. Academic dissemination and impact includes 4 workshops, many scientific papers, spin-off lectures, and 8 PhD thesis projects.
System integration has been succesfully accomplished, intregating the unmanned surface vessel, the observation ROV, the collection ROV, the aerial drone, and the collection basket. In addition, appropriate server backbone has been designed and implemented. A Shore Operation Center (SOC) has been tested for commanding the robots to specific waypoints, while the SeaClear Service Layers enable monitoring the robots over the WebUI. The individual and integrated hardware and software components of the SeaClear robotic system have been tested and validated during test campaigns in Dubrovnik, Hamburg, and Marseille.
A business plan has been defined for system sales as well as usage of the system as a service. Exploitable results have been listed, and potential end users have been identified, together with a preliminary list of targeted stakeholders for immediate marketing actions.
In addition, the fact that the end-users are involved in all steps of the project significantly increases the chances of successful deployment of the system after the end of the project.