Collaborative Automation and IoT Technologies for Coastal Ocean Observing Systems

Patrizio Mariani*, Ralf Bachmayer, Sokol Kosta, Ermanno Pietrosemoli, Murat V. Ardelan, Douglas P. Connelly, Eric Delory, Jay S. Pearlman, George Petihakis, Fletcher Thompson, Alessandro Crise

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)
34 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Coastal observing systems are typically nationally funded and built around national priorities. As a result, there are presently significant differences between countries in terms of sustainability, observing capacity and technologies, as well as methods and research priorities. Ocean observing systems in coastal areas must now move toward an integrated, multidisciplinary and multiscale system of systems, where heterogeneity should be exploited to deliver fit-for-purpose products that answer the diversity and complexity of the requirements from stakeholders and end-users. Essential elements of such distributed observation systems are the use of machine-to-machine communication, data fusion and processing applying recent technological developments for the Internet of Things (IoT) toward a common cyberinfrastructure. This perspective paper illustrates some of the challenges for sustained coastal observations and provides details on how to address present gaps. We discuss the role of collaborative robotics between unmanned platforms in coastal areas and the methods to benefit from IoT technologies. Given present trends in cost-effective solutions in ocean sensors and electronics, and methods for marine automation and communication, we consider that a distributed observation system can effectively provide timely information in coastal regions around the world, including those areas that are today poorly observed (e.g., developing countries). Adaptation in space and time of the sensing nodes, and the flexibility in handling different sensing platforms can provide to the system the ability to quickly respond to the rapid changes in oceanic and climatic processes, as well as to promptly respond to evolving stakeholder and end-user requirements.

Original languageEnglish
Article number647368
JournalFrontiers in Marine Science
Volume8
Pages (from-to)1-8
Number of pages8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
PM and RB acknowledge the contribution of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Project MISSION ATLANTIC under grant agreement no. 862428. ED acknowledges the contribution of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Project “JERICO-S3” under grant agreement no. 871153. We acknowledge the support of EUROMARINE network under the foresight workshop grant.

Funding Information:
This manuscript is the outcome of the Euromarine workshop ASIMO ?Autonomous systems for integrated marine and maritime coastal observations,? Gran Canaria, Spain, September 17?19, 2018. We would like to thank Valentina Mosetti for generating the original Figure 2 in the manuscript. Funding. PM and RB acknowledge the contribution of the European Union?s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Project MISSION ATLANTIC under grant agreement no. 862428. ED acknowledges the contribution of the European Union?s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Project ?JERICO-S3? under grant agreement no. 871153. We acknowledge the support of EUROMARINE network under the foresight workshop grant.

Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Mariani, Bachmayer, Kosta, Pietrosemoli, Ardelan, Connelly, Delory, Pearlman, Petihakis, Thompson and Crise.

Keywords

  • communication systems
  • internet of things
  • marine automation
  • oceanography
  • robotics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Collaborative Automation and IoT Technologies for Coastal Ocean Observing Systems'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this