This week is being carried out, in the waters of Croatia, a mock with autonomous underwater robots, to detect oil spills in the deep sea.
The submarine robot "IVER2 AUV"
The simulation is part of an European project, led by the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) (East of Spain), which also involved the universities of Oporto, Zagreb and Cyprus.
The initiative seeks to create a fleet of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Autonomous Surface Vehicles (USVs), with operational capacity to intervene against an oil spill, in European waters, using robotics technology several vehicles cooperate, as reveals the project website.
"It is about being better prepared for disasters like the one in the Gulf of Mexico, four years ago", said the project coordinator Professor, Underwater Robotics ready for Oil Spills (Robotica submarina preparada para vertidos de petroleo), Javier Gilabert, from the UPCT.
Researchers are, since early this year, working on a protocol for joint action, that will be implemented, in Croatian waters.
In the exercise, to simulate deep discharges rhodamine (a harmless reddish tint) to test sensors and undersea vehicles work capacity and communication between the robots.
"Until now, there was a lack of a tool able to detect oil spill in depth and determine its size and nature. With this type of vehicle this problem shall be settled thanks, among other things, to some sensors on submarines”, says Gilabert.
The mock will also serve to test how various unmanned vehicles complement each other, when locating the focus of submarine fuel spills and transmit information underwater to the buoys and to aircraft, throwing information, to the operational command post, in real time.
Moreover, the waters of Cartagena (Murcia, Eastern Spain) will be the setting for a new mock spill detection, in 2015, with which it will be finalized the protocol and the fleet of autonomous vehicles, that Europe will have to react quickly, to potential disasters as those occurring with the Exxon Valdez and the Prestige, at the time.
Well, I think this project is so interesting, for security.
Until my next post, kind regards,
Luis.
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