Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - September 2004
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Unmanned boat defends coastal waters
By Dr.Brenda Townsend-Hall
Work has begun in the UK to
build an unmanned surface
vehicle (USV) capable
of operating in shallow
water to provide a faster, more efficient
way of measuring water quality
and carrying out environmental surveys.
The Springer project at Plymouth
University, southern England, aims to
stimulate the growth of United
Kingdom expertise in USV technology
that is attracting increasing interest
worldwide. The sources of coastal pollution
originating from the land vary
from country to country - arising from
sewage systems, agricultural run-off
and various forms of industrial discharge.
To control the impact of pollution
on the coastal environment it is essential
to identify the types and amounts
of pollution present, a process that
involves determining the sources, location,
volume and concentration of the
pollutants.
Existing methods of tracking these
pollutants to their source, such as boat
sampling and airborne sensing, are
expensive, but they are also of limited
effectiveness because they cannot be
used easily in shallow water. The need
to staff them with operators is another
factor making them more expensive to
run than a remote-controlled device.
Because almost 40 per cent of our
planet’s population live in coastal
areas, fewer then 60 km from shorelines,
it is clear that the quality of
coastal waters can have a significant
impact on the lives of millions of people
worldwide.
Pollution of coastal waters and
inland waterways can pose a human
health hazard as well disturbing the
natural balance of the organisms for
which these waters are a habitat. This
project, with its cost-efficient system
for tracing pollution and its sources,
can make a valuable contribution to
improving the quality of coastal waters
globally.
Springer - named after the Springer
spaniel, a breed of dog renowned for
its tracking abilities - will be equipped
with sensors for measuring conductivity,
temperature, turbidity, pH, dissolved
oxygen and other parameters. It
will enable comprehensive studies to
be undertaken more economically than
is possible today.
With funding primarily from the
UK’s Engineering & Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC), Springer
is being built by a multidisciplinary
team including engineering and artificial
intelligence experts. Industrial and
public-sector partners are also
involved.
About 3m
long, 1.5m wide
and with a twin
hull, the vehicle
is designed to
work autonomously
or under
remote manual
control. Springer
will use a wireless
link to communicate
with
its operator and
transmit collected
data. The
vehicle will be
electrically powered
thus avoiding
the possibility
of diesel contamination
of
water or atmosphere.
A key feature will be the development
of an innovative navigation, guidance
and control system that will allow
Springer to switch seamlessly between
automatic and manual control modes.
The project team will harness a range
of skills covering artificial intelligence,
advanced control systems engineering
theory, multi-sensor data
fusion, dynamics, propulsors and integrated
navigation systems.
Professor Bob Sutton, leading the
initiative, said: “We aim to produce
full-scale trials data of interest to environmental
and marine agencies, and to
industry. The information generated by
vehicles like Springer could make a
major contribution to the effective
cleaning up of our waterways.”
Contact: Professor Bob Sutton,
Email: r.sutton@plymouth.ac.uk.,
Web: www.plymouth.ac.uk.
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