GRASSMAP

This project aims to demonstrate in situ capabilities for current state of the art platforms to enable remote awareness by removing common bottlenecks such as post-processing and classification of recorded underwater imagery. The methodology will be applied for the assessment of endemic seagrass species (Posidonia oceanica) in the Mediterranean using three different untethered platforms: an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), an Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) and a Lagrangian Drifter (LD). In this cruise, two different underwater platforms are compared: a Lagrangian drifter “Floaty McFloatface” developed by the University of Southampton, and a Sparus II “Turbot” AUV manufactured by IQUA Robotics.