The SLU Aqua Sailor drone

SLU Aqua Sailor is an aquatic unmanned ocean vehicle missioned to survey the sea and collect environmental data used in research and monitoring programmes. The autonomous drone has a wide range of benefits compared to traditional ship-based data collection: it has minimal environmental impact, runs quietly, operates in all weathers and offers a smart and gentle data collection.

SLU Aqua Sailor is used in both research and environmental monitoring and offers a cheap and interference-free method for data survey. Equipped with specially designed acoustic sensors, the unmanned SLU Aqua Sailor will measure the amount of fish and plankton thanks to new algorithms. The sensors reduce the need for traditional monitoring of fish and provides a more gentle sampling. With SLU Aqua Sailor, information on ocean conditions such as salinity and water temperature, are also measured, and via GPS researchers can continuously keep track of the location of the drone.

The SLU Aqua Sailor drone was built in Norway and was purchased by the Department of Aquatic Resources in the autumn of 2018, with partial funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers. SLU Aqua Sailor is stationed at the Institute of Marine Research in Lysekil.

Contact

Jonas Hentati Sundberg, Researcher

Department of Aquatic Resources, Institute of Marine Research, SLU

jonas.sundberg@slu.se, +46 10 478 40 70, +46 739-38 79 69