MarTERA BIOGLIDER, BIOGLIDER : Autonomous Exploration and Monitoring of Marine Ecosystems

BIOGLIDER is a MarTERA ERA-NET Cofund project with the main goal of developing and demonstrating a smart solution for measurement and monitoring of marine environmental status, marine ecosystems and ecosystem processes. BIOGLIDER combines acoustic and optical sensors for characterization of biological components of the water column, combined with a telemetry system for acoustic communication with subsea observing platforms for data harvesting. The BIOGLIDER solution is demonstrated on underwater gliders, which are vehicles that are especially well suited for long term monitoring in demanding marine environments. Underwater gliders are autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) that uses variable-buoyancy propulsion, and hydrofoils allowing the vehicle to glide forward while descending or ascending through the water. BIOGLIDER combines expertise from industry and research within sensor technologies and underwater gliders from France, Norway, Poland and Cyprus. The solution developed in the project will be relevant for operational monitoring by marine and maritime industries, for good environmental status (MSFD-GES) and marine ecosystem research and monitoring.

BIOGLIDER will both capitalize and build on state-of-the-art marine glider systems to take the next steps in the development of robotic subsea tools addressing the remaining challenges towards fully consistent integrated observing approaches both for OOSs and for industrial applications like in the fishery and Oil and Gas (O&G) sectors. With a focus on OOSs in coastal Nordic seas and for the Arctic GEOSS endorsed by SAON , new sensing and telemetry capabilities will be developed and tested in the project. Indeed, developing the OOSs to better address the observation of the biological compartment and to allow the data telemetry for e.g. subsurface moorings under sea-ice, are two major complementary challenges for these regions driving the ambition and objectives of the project.

BIOGLIDER will develop, demonstrate and prepare the first commercialisation of a multi-platform ‘smart’ marine ecology sensing solution for autonomous underwater vehicles. Through a strong collaboration between industrial and scientific partners, BIOGLIDER will combine expertise in new sensor technology and underwater gliders in France, Norway, Poland and Cyprus, to achieve new observation of biological parameters in extreme environments. BIOGLIDER will integrate miniaturized imagery and echosounder systems, in combination with a new acoustic telemetry link to fixed subsea observation platforms, to unlock near real-time monitoring of the under-observed mesopelagic ecosystem for research and industry. The BIOGLIDER solution will be useful for monitoring 1) biological parameters for zooplankton and fish ecology applications, 2) Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) descriptors (Good Environmental Status), and 3) for operational monitoring for ocean industries.