Duration | 2020 - 2023
Project leader | Yolanda González Cid
Collaborators | Gabriel Oliver Codina | Francisco Bonin-Font | Antoni Burguera Burguera | Eric Guerrero Font | Miguel Martín Abadal | Antoni Martorell Torres
DESCRIPTION
Posidonia oceanica (Po) is an endemic plant of the Mediterranean that offers a wide variety of ecosystem services to Balearic society, contributing to coastal protection, water quality, fisheries, etc. Unfortunately, due to its coastal location, it suffers numerous human impacts that threaten its conservation. This project aims to carry out a study of the state of the Po meadows in different areas of the coast of Mallorca, which are subject to different degrees of pressure. To this end, geolocated maps of the Po meadows (such as those shown below) will be generated periodically and automatically from images captured by three underwater vehicles, two of which are autonomous.
By comparing the maps over time, it will be possible to carry out studies of the evolution of the Po as a function of human activity and actions aimed at its protection, which can then be evaluated.
The project will develop the optimal technology and methodology for the automatic recording of OPomeadow maps, which will also allow the study of their long-term evolution.
This is a coordinated project between UIB and IMEDEA:
Subproject1 (UIB): Automatic generation of oceanic Posidonia hypermaps (MapPos). It will allow the automation of the generation of geolocalised multilayer maps of Po, other algal species, and fauna associated with the meadows, thanks to the use of underwater robotics and artificial intelligence (deep learning using convolutional neural networks).
Subproject 2 (IMEDEA): Analysis of the changes in the state of Posidonia and its associated fauna as a function of anchoring intensity (EstPos). It studies of the evolution of the Po, its ecosystem, and its conservation status as a function of different anthropogenic causes, making use of the hypermaps obtained over time and ecological data.
The information about this project on this webpage is regarding subproject1.
Funded by: Comunitat Autonoma de les Illes Balears through the Direcció General de Política Universitaria i Recerca with funds from the Tourist Stay Tax Law (PRD2018/34)
PUBLICATIONS
B. M. Nordfeldt-Fiol, F. Bonin-Font, Y. González, G. Oliver. Evolving Visual Odometry for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. In 14th IFAC Conference on Control Applications in Marine Systems, Robotics and Vehicles, Lyngby, Denmark, pp. 381-386, 2022.
Y. González, F. Bonin-Font, E. Guerrero, A. Martorell, M. Martín, G. Oliver, H. Hinz, L. Pereda-Briones, F. Tomàs. Autonomous Marine Vehicles and CNN: Tech Tools for Posidonia Meadows Monitoring. In IEEE Oceans , Sant Diego/Virtual, 2021.
B. M. Nordfeldt-Fiol, F. Bonin-Font, Y. González, G. Oliver. Improving Visual Odometry for AUV Navigation in Marine Environments. In MARTECH - THE 9TH INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON MARINE TECHNOLOGY, 2021.