Objectives of the service
The service objective is to develop a solution for scalable, crowd-sourced seafloor mapping aimed at supporting the fishing industry with better sea maps. The solution exploits that most fishing vessels are equipped with an accurate echo sounder which can produce valuable samples of the water depth where vessels are sailing. It also exploits the new AIS 2.0 (VDES) data transport option available over both satellite and coastal VHF radio, as well as other connectivity options, such as mobile networks in near-shore regions. By implementing a solution that can be installed on many fishing vessels at low cost, the responsible maps authority can get access to large volumes of data for sea map production.
Users and their needs
The service is targeted at Maps Authorities, in particular The Danish Geodata Agency, which is an already signed customer.
End-user segment and their needs:
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Fishing industry – would accept to install bathymetry data harvesting equipment on the ship to help map authorities in exchange of upgrading ship AIS equipment
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Cruise fleet – the need for maps covering remote areas
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Merchant fleet – delivering food supply to remote arctic communities with the need for safety on the sailed routes, especially near ports and in fairways
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Navy – the need for safety and strategic planning
Market demand and customer/user needs:
Fishing vessels do not follow the common sailing routes; therefore, the generated data is going to be more valuable for bathymetric purposes. Scale is important for crowd-sourced bathymetry (CSB), and the amount of active fishing vessels is big.
Service/ system concept
Crowd-sourced bathymetry solution is developed for fishing industry application. The aim of the service is to get access to echo sounder data onboard ships and carry this home for post-processing by the map authority. The service makes use of Sternula’s AIS 2.0 connectivity, which can be combined with e.g., cellular mobile connectivity when in near-shore waters. The final output of the service is new, accurate sea maps.
In the solution proposed, periodic reports of data are continuously transmitted via AIS 2.0, especially, when the data is considered as “urgent” or “sensitive”. In the future, when the high-data rate connectivity is available, larger volumes of data can be retrieved.
The key activity is development of certain elements of the data collection unit to be deployed in fishing vessels:
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Software that enables the map authority to push “software updates” over the air onto units that have been installed on ships earlier
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Software that enables remote over the air configuration of units on ships.
Space Added Value
The offered value proposition is a scalable data collection platform for ships, including the global data connection through Sternula’s satellites.
The use of satellite connection is important for the case, since the focus of the solution is on Arctic waters, where connectivity is often a problem.
Current Status
Project kicked off in November 2022.
Prime Contractor(s)
