Leveraging ocean data harvesting by heterogenous robotic organizations and autonomous vehicles as sensor carrying platforms
Sensor carrying platforms may be stationary devices, such as landers and buoys, or mobile platforms, such as marine robotics, ships, aerial systems, and remote sensing satellites from space. The development of low-cost small satellites with customized payload sensors and accessible mission control centers has opened for a democratization of the space for remote sensing. The mapping and monitoring strategy may be carried out by each type of sensor carrying platform suitable for the mission, or by operating heterogenous autonomous sensor carrying platforms for the most efficient mapping and monitoring in spatial and temporal scales. There have been several research efforts to improve the technology and methodology by improving payload and navigation sensors, autonomy functions such as situation awareness, planning capabilities and risk handling, and not at least collaborative control across boundaries. We are facing a paradigm shift in terms of resolution and coverage capabilities. Today, we see that the mapping coverage may be 100-1000 times higher than the state-of-the-art technology six years ago. The entailed increase in data harvesting does also create new challenges in handling of big datasets. The presentation will cover various aspects to of ocean data harvesting and autonomous vehicles. Example from field operations will be shown.