Description
The main objective of the project is to improve the national environmental maritime monitoring capacity in remote ocean areas by deploying a low-cost system comprising unmanned vehicles (UAVs) and sensors (deployable water glider smart sensor, GNSS-Reflectometry altimetry, Optical Camera and AIS) and a dedicated ground station. The project shall design, develop, test and demonstrate in the Gorringe bank (150 miles WSW of Cape St. Vicente, proposed as a marine protected area) the use of 2 high endurance UAV fixed-wing platforms base on UAVISION existing platform adapted to remote ocean monitoring. UAVs will fly in a collaborative and complementary way in a network to collect and relay data (telemetry, sensors, etc) to and from land-based station, allowing gathering of human activity and environmental data to be disseminated in open databases to entities via national NIPIMAR initiative. The project is aligned with Portuguese National Ocean Strategy embraced by IH as well industrial strategies of UAVISION and DEIMOS, targeting a near future implementation on higher scale and TRL with significant impact on Portuguese maritime operations in terms of capability, cost and efficiency.
Summary of project results
The Portuguese law assigns to the Air Force and the Portuguese Navy the surveillance of the EEZ focused, among other aspects, on: Supervision and control of fishing activities; Detection and control of illicit activities; Illegal Immigration; Maritime pollution detection; Control of Maritime Traffic; Search and Rescue Notwithstanding the existing means, recent technological developments in unmanned aerial systems can contribute to improved data collection or lower operational costs by freeing up resources to increase the effectiveness of monitoring such an extensive EEZ. The main objective of the project is to improve the national environmental maritime monitoring capacity in remote ocean areas by deploying a low-cost system comprising Unnamed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and smart sensors (Airborne Deployable Glider also named herein Miniaturised Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (mAUV) and Airborne eXpendable BathyThermograph – AXBT), GNSS-Reflectometry altimetry (such as GPS and Galileo), Visible and Thermal Cameras and Automatic Identification System (AIS)) and a dedicated Ground Control Station. The project shall design, develop, test and demonstrate in the banco de Gorringe (150 miles WSW of Cape St. Vicente, proposed as a marine protected area) the use of high endurance UAV fixed-wing platforms base on UAVISION existing platform adapted to ocean monitoring. UAVs will collect and relay data (telemetry, sensors, etc) to and from land-based station, allowing gathering of human activity and environmental data to be disseminated in open databases to entities via national NIPIMAR initiative and also to the general public. The project is aligned with Portuguese National Ocean Strategy embraced by IH as well industrial strategies of UAVISION and DEIMOS, targeting a near future implementation on higher scale and TRL with significant impact on Portuguese maritime operations in terms of capability, cost and efficiency. Social media (Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/socodrone/, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter) were used to maintain public interest in the project development though regular publishing of small trivia directed to the general public. A 3D animation demonstrating the UAV operation was produced under contract for distribution in schools. During the UAV mission, video streaming of the along-track observations will be provided via www in real time. Several presences in forums and schools were published in the facebook website and can be seen online.
Summary of bilateral results