£4M Investment to Enhance Marine Robotics Research Capabilities – Marine Technology News

February 13, 2025
Sensor development at NOC Photo_ Credit NOC
The UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC) has been awarded £4 million to bring next-generation sensing capabilities to its marine autonomous systems fleet to advance sustainable ocean science.
The funding from the Natural Environment Research Council’s (NERC’s) Future Marine Research Infrastructure (FMRI) program will support three projects by leading scientists and engineers at NOC to develop advanced sensors targeting 10 different biogeochemical essential ocean variables, from physics to nutrients and carbon. These will be integrated into autonomous underwater vehicles such as gliders and NOC’s Autosub Long Range (ALR).
These advances will be made available to the UK marine science community through the UK’s National Marine Equipment Pool, the largest centralized marine scientific equipment pool in Europe, as part of the National Marine Facilities, managed by NOC.
“By accelerating the adoption of sensor innovation, this investment will help position the UK at the cutting edge of marine research capabilities,” says FMRI Program Director Kristian Thaller. “It will ensure that UK marine science can meet the urgent need to observe, understand, and predict changes in the ocean.”
The funding from NERC’s FMRI program supports its Accelerating Adoption of Sensor Innovation (AASI) initiative, which aims to show how innovation in marine sensor technology can be translated into deployable autonomous research capabilities.
The funding will support three cutting-edge sensor development projects: integrating these sensors into autonomous platforms, enhancing data management systems, and targeting comprehensive validation trials by the summer of 2026.
The three sensor projects are:
Autonomous Sensors for fast In-situ Measurements of nutrient Ocean Variables (ASIMOV) – led by Dr Allison Schaap, will increase the performance, speed, and reliability of nitrate and phosphate lab-on-chip sensors for use on Teledyne Slocum gliders.
Marine Sensors for Carbon Observations (MaSCOt) – led by Dr. Socratis Loucaides, is a project to advance and optimize for use on gliders' high-accuracy and precision lab-on-chip sensors for the marine carbonate system.
SixSense – led by Dr Andrew Morris, and as previously announced, will create a miniature multi-parameter sensor capable of measuring six key parameters covering biogeochemical, physical, and environmental measurements (conductivity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, pressure, pH, and Eh), to be integrated onto ALRs, gliders and other platforms, such as submersibles and profiling floats.
The FMRI program's mission is to revolutionize marine research infrastructure to deliver cutting-edge marine research capabilities so that science can serve society’s need to observe, understand, and predict change in the ocean.
Global Underwater Hub (GUH) published a white paper on its approach to tackling a crucial issue that could derail the UK’s clean energy ambitions.
Chase, probe, embrace, flex, push. It’s probably too much information, but that is how krill mate.The behavior was recorded…
UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography issued a request for proposals (RFP) to select a shipyard for the final…
Fugro has secured a new five-year contract by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for hydrographic…
Siting: How to Choose the Best Location for Your Weather Station is a new blog from the weather instrumentation experts at…
The Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology (KIOST) accepted delivery of the Klein Marine System’s 5900 ultra-high-resolution sonar…
Marine Technology Reporter is the world’s largest audited subsea industry publication serving the offshore energy, subsea defense and scientific communities.
Marine Technology ENews is the subsea industry’s largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service, delivered to your Email three times per week
Subscribe for MTR E-news

source

About The Author

admin

See author's posts