Civil infrastructure is aging in many industrialized countries around the world. Autonomous monitoring of existing civil and industrial structures is of growing interest, as it has the potential to reduce cost for maintenance and repairs drastically, replace tedious, time-consuming and error-prone manual inspections, and allows to detect damage long before the human eye can. Especially in large structures, wireless sensor networks are preferable, as the deployment of cable-bound solutions is very costly. However, communicating with wireless sensors is challenging in many environments, as conventional communication techniques rely on electromagnetic waves, which cannot penetrate metal boundaries, e.g. if sensors are embedded within the structure. Furthermore, powering such devices with batteries requires regular battery replacements, which are costly when sensor nodes are in hard-to-reach places. Wireless power transfer is therefore an attractive solution to power sensor nodes in closed metal containers, such as pressure tanks or pipelines.

Motivation The protection of waters and port areas is monitored by local authorities. Essential tasks encompass disaster management and the initiation of immediate countermeasures; e.g., after accidents with toxic chemicals that pose a harm for the public (contamination of drinking water etc.). Due to their high cost, manual measurements and diver operation are only triggered and conducted upon a concrete threat or suspicion. Automatic measurements by small, inexpensive and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have the potential to eliminate this deficiency. They hence contribute essentially to public safety and the protection of action forces in case of an emergency or disaster. Goals and Contributions The principal goals of the project are the conception and research of a technical system of a swarm of small, agile, and inexpensive underwater vehicles equipped with task-specific sensors; e.g., to detect oil or toxic chemicals in the water body. For this purpose, three main contributions are made by the project partners. Firstly, novel und unique miniature sensors are developed. Secondly, swarm behavior and intelligent task planning and execution algorithsm are proposed and researched. Thirdly, underwater communication and localization methods and algorithms are devised and investigated. Within the project, we will also develop a function demonstrator for experiments in the Hamburg Port basins and inshore waters. Innovations and Perspectives The investigated system is --- due its easy handling, mobility, flexibility and its samrt precision sensors --- highly innovative. The combination of swarm behavior and underwater self-localization based on inexpensive hardware is an unique selling point and promises pivotal research results.Due to the involvement of local authorities of the city of Hamburg (dt., Behörde für Umwelt und Energie der Stadt Hamburg), the system will already fulfill market requirements. The system will also be suitable for application in limnic waters at dams and automatic depth tracking of waterways. Kooperationen: Sea&Sun Technology GmbH, TrappenkampUniversität zu Lübeck, Institut für Technische Informatik

Im Auftrag des GEOMAR Kiel forscht und entwickelt das Institut für Autonome Cyber-Physische Systeme an einem drahtlosen Auslösemechanismus für die Unterwassermessplattform MOLA (Modular Ocean Lander Architecture). Die MOLAs werden gezielt auf dem Meeresboden platziert und nehmen Unterwasser-Messdaten auf. Aufgrund der großen Datenmengen und limitierten Bandbreite in der Unterwasserkommunikation werden die Daten lokal auf den MOLAs gespeichert. Diese werden von Schiffen aus eingesammelt und die Daten heruntergeladen und ausgewertet. Um ein gezieltes Auftauchen der MOLAs, die in Tiefen von mehreren hundert bis tausend Metern auf dem Meeresgrund liegen, zu ermöglichen, soll das Auftauchen durch ein drahtloses akustisches Signal erfolgen. Die entsprechende Technik und Integration in MOLA werden in diesem Projekt realisiert. Dabei werden auch Energiesparmaßnahmen untersucht, um die Missionsdauer der MOLA nicht zu beeinträchtigen.