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Description
Connectivity is becoming a fundamental asset for every sector. Many experts have stated that the next industrial revolution enables everything to be connected and a part of a nuclear, value-driven, highly technological ecosystem. Aquaculture is a very demanding process since it requires a fully balanced and healthy ecosystem. Changing one of the many parameters in a fish tank can have tragic consequences if done wrongly.
We propose to connect aquaculture to a platform that allows real-time decision making and impact measurement of the necessary indicators in fish tanks. Such a platform must be deeply rooted on best of breed sensors and telecom grade networks to allow for highly precise, real-time measurements. In this sense, Ubiwhere is partnering with two Norwegian entities to create a connected, edge computing aware platform to aid the day to day operations of aquaculture sites. Such a platform builds upon the vast experience that Ubiwhere has in other sectors ranging from cities to telecommunications.
All in all, the project aims at creating the Blue Control Centre: The connected aquaculture platform to enable aquaculture companies to address the current market uptick for sustainable products whilst lowering the OPEX costs of having the personnel to provide measures on the many fish tanks owned by these companies. From the operational standpoint, Blue Control Centre excels in creating the basis for: (1) connect aquaculture to remote decision making; (2) act in real-time; (3) learn from past decisions; and (4) expand the business with more ease.
Summary of project results
Connectivity is becoming a fundamental asset for every sector. Many experts have stated that the next industrial revolution enables everything to be connected and a part of a nuclear, value-driven, highly technological ecosystem. Aquaculture is a very demanding process since it requires a fully balanced and healthy ecosystem between the environment and the reared organisms. Changes and technical failures on one of the many parameters in a fish tank can have tragic consequences if done wrongly. We proposed to design and create a monitoring platform that allows real-time decision making and impact measurement of the necessary indicators in fish tanks for aquaculture monitoring. Such a platform must be deeply rooted on best of breed sensors and telecom grade networks to allow for highly precise, real-time measurements. In this sense, Ubiwhere partnered with two Norwegian entities to create a connected, edge computing aware platform to aid the day to day operations of aquaculture sites. Such a platform builds upon the vast experience that Ubiwhere has in other sectors ranging from cities to telecommunications. All in all, the project aimed at creating the Blue Control Centre: The connected aquaculture platform to enable aquaculture companies to address the current market uptick for sustainable products whilst lowering the OPEX costs of having the personnel to provide measures on the many fish tanks owned by these companies. From the operational standpoint, Blue Control Centre excels in creating the basis for: (1) connect aquaculture to remote decision making; (2) act in real-time; (3) learn from past decisions; and (4) expand the business with more ease.
Since the beginning of the project, the consortium worked on accomplishing the goals established for WP1 (Project Management), WP2 (Technical Specification & Platform Development) and WP4 (Dissemination Activities). Since the last periodic report, the consortium also worked on WP3 (Pilot). Currently, all activities have been concluded. In WP1 (Project Management), general technical project management actions necessary for the execution of all project activities have been carried out, ensuring the good relationship and collaboration between all partners and guaranteeing that all the goals were achieved. The WP2 (Technical Specification & Platform Development) aimed to create a technical specification to be implemented and used to build the Blue Control Centre platform. Such a solution aimed to cover every technical aspect from the device to the cloud service where the fish farmer can monitor day-to-day operations. Moreover, this activity discussed the necessary sensors, actuators, architectural specifications, requirements analysis and communication modules for the pilots to be a reality. Within this WP the consortium produced a Solution User Manual that aims to help any potential user comprehend the technology used in the solution and how that works within the Blue Control Centre platform. Within the work of T2.1 and T2.2, D2.1 was prepared, introducing the architectural specifications and requirement analysis for the Blue Control Centre platform and the design of the trial scenarios: Trial scenario 1: Blue Control Centre (BCC) implementation of an aquaculture production system reporting its own production state, which focused on the need for real-time monitoring and critical warning and Trial scenario 2: Blue Control Centre (BCC) demonstration of autonomic regulation of key water quality variables (e.g. oxygen level and salinity) steered by sensor data, which focused on regulation and control, actuating on the real-time information resulted from trial scenario 1 results.
The field of aquaculture is still very dependent on human effort and monitoring. The need to establish a more technological solution for real-time monitoring and controlling is imperative to ensure the evolution of the field and to guarantee the ability to provide products answering to the high demands from the consumers. Within this context, the BlueControlCentre project aimed to develop a software solution - a platform - to ensure the real time monitoring of aquaculture parameters that guarantee the quality of the fishes farmed and provides farmers with the ability to adjust the parameters and receive any alerts when these parameters are off the defined values. This platform, and the pilots established showcased the relevance of the project for aquaculture and fish farmers, since it provides them with a tool to control in real time, 24/7, the status of their installations and their fishes, adjusting the parameters when needed and understanding if any fish/tank is contaminated earlier on, enabling the possibility to save some of the cultures. Finally, the project result is considered to be of incredible importance since the result may be turned into a profitable SaaS product.
Summary of bilateral results
Within the BlueControlCentre project Ubiwhere worked closely with two Norwegian partners - University of Agder and LandbasertAkvakultur Norge.Both these partners showcased a significantly greater knowledge on aquaculture and its processes, while Ubiwhere brought to theconsortium a wider expertise on technology and technological solutions.The cooperation between all the parties resulted in a technological solution adequate to the needs of fish farmers, that wouldadvance and innovate the field, increasing the production and the quality of the product.The solution works as a monitoring platform in real time that provides fish farmers the ability to know in real-time the status oftheir installations and their fishes. Additionally, the solution includes the possibility to add alarms for different parameters andthresholds which, aided by the capability of remote actuators, allow fish farmers to adjust in real-time any potentially dangeroussituation for their animals.The construction of such a solution was only possible due to the knowledge and expertise of our partners, who understood the practical needs of fish farmers and were able to design with Ubiwhere a solution that would facilitate their work and optimise production.Therefore, we are led to believe that the project and the established relationships between partners resulted in a better and more robust solution, capable of adjusting to the needs and wants of the field and farmers, ensuring a safer environment, while innovative.