UFOTriNet

The development of a mobile and portable underwater fish observatory (UFO) and the establishment of a network of UFOs for monitoring fish stocks by linking them to a stationary UFO (UFOTriNet).

Challenge

The UFO TriNet project aims to establish a network of underwater fish observatories to enable the non-invasive monitoring of creatures inhabiting a given habitat. It will no longer be necessary to fish in order to determine biomass and abundance.

Innovative AI methods will be used to process sonar and stereo camera data in order to detect and identify species in the water column. This data will be made available to marine biologists, enabling them to draw conclusions about the occurrence and number of different species in a given habitat.

As part of the project, Fraunhofer IOSB-AST is developing the mobile UFO — a hybrid underwater vehicle equipped with sonar, a stereo camera and a powerful AI computer on which real-time detection algorithms can be executed. The vehicle also has a high-precision navigation sensor that enables fully autonomous operation as well as remote control.

Motivation

Until now, species in the Baltic Sea and their occurrence have mostly been determined using comparative fishing methods, whereby nets are cast at specific points and times, and the catch is evaluated. However, as this method is neither sustainable nor reliable for determining species and numbers of marine life, a new, non-invasive method that is more reliable for determining and predicting the population of different species needed to be developed.

Solution

The project faced three major challenges:

Integrating sonar and a stereo camera into a small underwater vehicle.
Using a powerful AI computer to process data in real time during the mission.
Developing a high-precision underwater navigation device for the vehicle to be used autonomously.

All three tasks were solved in such a way that the mobile UFO can be operated by two people, meaning it is neither too heavy nor too large. The powerful computer can be used during the mission thanks to a cooling system developed in-house, which ensures reliable performance even under extreme conditions.

Thanks to its precise underwater navigation, AI computer, sonar, stereo camera and space for additional sensors, the vehicle is ideally suited to inspection and exploration tasks.