The aim of the project is to develop an autonomous sailing boat to act as a maritime research platform for passive-acoustic monitoring (PAM) of marine mammals.

AAS Endurance is a flexible, multi-sensor platform suitable for use in research on a wide range of ecological issues. The system offers a number of significant advantages over previously used autonomous platforms for research on marine mammals, for instance with respect to speed, room for scientific equipment and a continuous supply of energy for long-term missions. On the other hand, use of a sailing boat entails new challenges, such as reliable recognition and avoidance of obstacles as well as energy self-sufficiency, which will be examined in this project.

Pupils from a Higher Technical College will gain extensive insights into an international and multi-disciplinary research project. Both current marine biology issues as well as basic technological principles of autonomous obstacle recognition will be covered in the classroom. During field tests by the sea, students will be able to work alongside the scientists and experience first-hand how exciting and varied scientific work is.

This project has been completed.

This project was supported by:

Frequentis AG, 1100 Wien