Remotely piloted air systems (RPAS) are well suited as mobile sensor platforms. In the marine sector, the potential use for such systems include environmental surveillance, search and rescue, documentation of maritime operations, integrity monitoring of fish farms, fairway monitoring and marine resource management. The maritime environment is challenging, especially with respect to weather conditions. The RPAS must be adapted to the environment in order to have acceptable range, availability and integrity.
The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway together with project participants SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture, Maritime Robotics, SIMICON, SEMEKOR and Kongsberg Seatex. The project is owned by the Norwegian company SIMICON - a supplier of solutions and operations using RPAS, while SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture is the project manager. SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture also contributes to the requirements and specification of the system.
The project's main objective is to develop a specialized prototype system for an instrumented RPAS applied to surveillance and inspection of objects and operations in a maritime environment.
