Description
PT02 programme aims to achieve a good environmental status, in accordance of MSFD and one of the expected outputs consists in the strengthening of the capacity of mobile remote monitoring ocean through the introduction of innovative supporting platforms. Such platforms in remote ocean areas comprise various challenges, particularly as regards the availability of energy. ENDURE aims at projecting, constructing and testing a cost-effective solution that allows for autonomous underwater vehicles to wirelessly recharge their batteries near an underwater charging station, used in remote oceanic areas including deep-sea deployments. By avoiding complex mechanical docking, the proposed solution requires minimal maintenance being therefore cost-effective, and will enable long-term operation in remote oceanic locations. The proposed solution consists in an underwater charging station moored to the seabed and also connected to a surface platform that generates energy though renewable energy.
Summary of project results
One of the expected outputs of the PT02 programme consists in the strengthening of the capacity of mobile remote ocean monitoring through the introduction of innovative supporting platforms. Such platforms in remote ocean areas comprise various challenges, particularly as regards the availability of energy. ENDURE aimed at designing, constructing and testing a cost-effective solution to allow autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) to wirelessly recharge their batteries near an underwater charging station, used in remote oceanic areas. This constitutes a fundamental technology for any programme requiring remote oceanic monitoring using smart mobile platforms, since these require the capacity to operate for long periods of time in order to acquire significant amounts of monitoring data. ENDURE has successfully achieved its main objective of demonstrating a scalable and cost-effective solution of the underwater recharging of AUV batteries, up to 70 Watt of power. This represents a stepping stone in the path towards the long-term goal of enabling long-term deployment of underwater robotics platforms in remote oceanic locations. A subsequent project will use the results of ENDURE to extend it to higher power levels, targeting 300 Watt in order to reduce the required charging time. ENDURE delivered a prototype of an underwater AUV recharging solution, nine technical reports corresponding to the description of work performed in each of the nine tasks of the project, 14 scientific publications in international conferences, project website, roll-up, fact-sheet, and twitter account with more than 80 followers and organisation of a final workshop with about 30 attendees. One of the main achievements is the recognition of INESC TEC as an established major player in the research field of underwater wireless power transfer / communications and docking, which certainly contributed to the successful evaluation of INESC TEC’s application to the national funding program of research infrastructures, which awarded 5M€ for the implementation of the TEC4SEA research infrastructure.
Summary of bilateral results
The involvement of MARLO A.S. in the ENDURE project allowed for an improved knowledge and mutual understanding between MARLO A. S. and the two Portuguese entities involved, INESC TEC and IPMA. This in turn has stimulated wider effects, namely the involvement of INESC TEC and MARLO A.S. in new projects (e.g. the SpilLess project) and the establishment of a formal partnership between MARLO A.S. and the TEC4SEA research infrastructure. A formal partnership was established between MARLO A.S. and TEC4SEA, a research infrastructure lead by INESC TEC, which aims at supporting the research, development and test of technologies for the ocean. The bilateral partnership with MARLO A.S. contributed to the dissemination of the project results, namely through the launching of press-releases to the media (e.g. in “Jornal da Economia do Mar”), the creation of the project communication package (logo, website, roll-up, presentation template), feeding of the twitter account, as well as joint organisation of a workshop to stakeholders.