The project consortium continues to reach key milestones in the automation of complex tasks in marine environments. Recently, the team from the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) has successfully completed the first navigation and control tests of its new surface prototype: a robotic catamaran.
The catamaran is being developed to act as a central node in the TANDEM architecture. During the tests, its navigation and control capabilities and a battery autonomy of up to ten hours, essential features for continuous surveillance in aquaculture facilities, were validated. The main technical milestone of this prototype is its launch and recovery system (LARS), an experimental solution designed to deploy underwater vehicles in an automated manner, eliminating the risks of manual handling at sea and improving operator safety.
The data collected during the tests are being used to optimize the Deep Learning algorithms developed by the Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB) for the detection of biofouling and net breakages. At the same time, the platform is already being prepared to integrate the communication and coordination protocols led by the Universitat de Girona (UdG).