Heterogeneous multi-agent systems for monitoring and preservation of marine environment
Oceans are negatively affected by human activities that harm marine life, undermine coastal communities and impact human health, with marine litter being one of the most significant issues facing oceans worldwide. Marine litter is a human-created waste, persistent, manufactured or processed solid material that has been discharged into the marine and coastal environment, brought indirectly to the sea with rivers, sewage, storm water or winds; or accidentally lost, including material lost at sea in bad weather. Today’s oceans contain 26-66 million tons of waste, with approximately 94% located on the seafloor. So far, collection efforts have focused mostly on surface waste, with only a few local efforts to gather underwater waste, always using human divers. This problem could be addressed by building a stable and reliable system capable of tackling a highly disputed social, economic and environmental issue, namely ocean pollution. This talk will focus on how bringing together state-of-the-art technologies from the fields of machine learning, sensing, manipulation, aerial and marine technologies can be used for monitoring and preservation on marine environment.