Page 86 - Research & Innovation Report 2020
P. 86
ENGINEERING, THE BUILT
ENVIRONMENT AND TECHNOLOGY
Building our own marine
research assets
The Marine Robotics Unit has designed a prototype surface autonomous vessel that is currently
being tested for operational conditions.
“Instead of purchasing expensive equipment on the international A transdisciplinary group of researchers from the schools of
market, we are building our own marine research assets that we can engineering, physics and zoology have come together in the MRU,
make available to scientists and the market,” says Andrew Young, and developed a prototype surface autonomous vessel (SAV),
manager of the Marine Robotics Unit (MRU) and engineering designed to survey the little-researched shallow reef and estuarine
director of eNtsa in which the MRU is situated. environments.
eNtsa is an internationally recognised innovation hub within the Young explains: “The SAV has multiple uses – from measuring
Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Technology temperature, depth and salinity and potentially the growth rate of
(EBET). Research activities within marine robotics include projects perlemoen [abalone], to other non-marine uses such as inspecting
related to machine learning and the integration of control systems the structural integrity of dam walls. It includes WiFi, GSM and
as part of Industry 4.0. GPS communications systems and the Li-ion battery and power
Autonomous research vessel
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