Public Funding for South West Mull and Iona Development

Seaweed Generation are developing a remotely operated automated underwater vehicle that is able to carry out biodiversity monitoring using hyperspectral cameras and passive acoustic recording. Machine learning will be used to develop methods for animal recognition and species identification. Our AUV glider (based on a previously developed design) is powered by electric thrusters giving it the ability to follow detailed "flight" plans. A solar PV docking station provides a charging point for the glider as well as a point for transmitting the collected data. As a novel design to monitor and observe potential impacts to biodiversity on seaweed farms and off-shore windfarms, this project will focus on the creation of the remotely operated observation array, processing of data using machine learning to 'match' against recorded species, and the capacity of our glider to 'untether' and return to its docking / charging station. We will be running the data collected by the observation array through machine learning software and open source datasets to make species identification and quantification easier and faster. Our project aims to make long term marine biodiversity monitoring more accessible and cost effective in the challenging remote coastal and off-shore environment.