Current & New Demonstration Projects 2012
Supported by the SmartBay Test and Demonstration Infrastructure
No.
1
Name
Technology From Ideas
– Elastomeric mooring
solution development
Lead PI
Paul McEvoy
Paul Gaughan
2
Tolerant Networks –
bespoke router and
sensor platform
development
Kerry Hartnett
3
Shimmer Research –
Sensor development
Florin Stroiescu
4
Biospheric Engineering
– acoustic monitoring
technology trialling
Eugene McKeown
Guy Westbrook
5
Trailing of Marine based
wireless point to point
communication systems
and stabilisation
technologies
Marine
Communications
Infrastructure
development with
HEANET
Stage I Testing of novel
antifouling materials
Brendan Minish
Guy Westbrook
Deployment and
testing of Optical
Colorimetric Sensor
(OCS)
Deployment of
continuous
environmental
monitoring sensor
Lorna Fitzsimons
Fiona Regan
An Investigation into
Satellite Remote
Sensing Products in
Galway Bay
Edel O Connor
Alan Smeaton
6
7
8
9
10
Paul Gaughan
Andrew Mackarel
James Chapman
Fiona Regan
Tim Sullivan
Fiona Regan
Description
This work is investigating current communication link stability with the existing
Smartbay buoy mooring configurations and evaluating how this could be
improved using advanced elastomeric mooring systems. This will be
demonstrated on the Smartbay stand on July 3rd and 4th
Work is ongoing on the development of a wireless router based on proven
technology that has already been deployed into extreme environments for
extended durations. (Including a 4 month winter trial on Mutton island, Galway
bay). The router can run on solar power and has the advantage of multiple
interfaces for communication links, e.g., USB, Serial, Ethernet, PCIe.
Sensor integration work and marine deployment work is on ongoing with
shimmer research engineers with a view to continual deployment of Shimmer
sensors on the SmartBay platforms recording information about buoy position
and movementunder different sea nad weather conditions.
The Smartbay platforms and infrastructure are being utilised by Biospheric
Engineering as a platform to test integration of acoustic sensors with
communications systems to facilitate real time acoustic data monitoring,
testing and equipment integration prior to a full deployment at the ¼ scale
wave energy test site in Galway Bay.
SmartBay is developing a gimbal based system was proposed as a possible
solution to the issue of maintaining the required alignment on the buoy end of
a high speed marine communications radio link. The work is taking place on a
Smartbay Platform to test a working prototype gimbal and to actively monitor
connectivity throughput under various marine conditions.
SmartBay through its membership of the HEANET is leveraging the connectivity
of the HEANET network to provide high speed connectivity to Marine
Researchers to deployments at sea in the Galway Bay area. It is planned to
extend this connectivity to all Irish coastal areas.
This project involves the deployment of innovative, non-toxic antifouling test
materials in SmartBay. The materials will include a variety of transparent
coatings based on poly vinyl(chloride) (PVC), sol-gels and polydimethyl siloxane
(PDMS) polymer matrices along with commercial marine antifouling paints for
deployment in the water
This project involves the deployment and testing of an innovative, low-cost
optical colorimetric sensor developed by MESTECH. The sensor consists of an
array of LEDs and a photodiode
This project involves the deployment of a YSI multi-parameter sonde and the
continuous monitoring of the physiochemical properties of marine waters. As
well as providing continuous physicochemical data (temperature, conductivity,
DO, pH and chlorophyll-a), the sonde serves as a benchmark for the MESTECH
colorimetric sensor, the materials testing and supports satellite imaging data
modelling and analysis, and thus, is closely aligned with the other current
MESTECH projects.
This project involves the analysis of a number of remote sensing data products
in order to determine the most suitable for the Galway Bay region for use in an
operational multi-modal sensor network. There are a number of difficulties
with the use of satellite data in coastal zones where waters are generally
more complex than the open ocean. There is a lot of research into region
specific algorithms for generating values for water quality parameters, as a
‘one fit all’ approach is generally not accurate enough where the optical
properties of the water vary. In order to determine the most appropriate
products or satellite data streams for galway bay, in-situ sensors are
necessary to validate the remote sensing data. This project will use data
from project 3 outlined above in order to investigate various remote sensing
data products.
11
Twitter Buoy - Water
Quality monitor
Paul Gaughan
12
SIXTH – Sensor
Middleware platform
Greg O Hare
Paul Gaughan
13
Twitter Data Feeds
Regina McNulty
14
IBM Acoustic Project
Demo
Mark Purcell
Guy Westbrook
15
Webcam on Harbour
Master Building
Ken Whelan
Glynn Howells
16
Fresh Water Influx
studies in Kinvara
17
ISIS Pilot
Dermot Diamond
Lawrence Gill
Tim McCarthy
Tim McCarty
Graduate Student
18
Mike Hartnett
Mike Hartnett
19
Ubipix for Marine
Environment
Tim McCarthy
20
Rachel Cave
Rachel Cave + 6 students
The CIL Twitter Buoy has been fitted with a WET Labs Water quality monitor to
provide information on water quality conditions in Galway Bay for the Volvo
Ocean Race
The Sixth sensor Middleware system developed by UCD will be demonstrated
in the marine Pavilion during the Volvo Ocean race week. The system will
integrate with real time data feeds from sensors in Galway Bay.
This project involves scheduled postings of WaveRider data (data, links, images)
and Twitter data (retweets) to the Commissioners of Irish Lights Twitter
account – making realtime sensor data readily available to the public. The
medium of twitter has also been harnessed to distribute model data
information to marine stakeholders.
SmartBay is providing the communications and backhaul services for this
cutting edge research project involving key Smartbay partners IBM, Biospheric
Engineering and the Marine Institute.
Farson Digital WebCams have installed a high resolution web cam on the
Galway HarbourMasters building as part of a nationwide network of web
cameras providing visual information from various river and port locations
around the country. It is planned to integrate the camera feed into a tidal/flood
monitoring system for Galway bay
A collaborative project to investigate the effect of freshwater outflows into
Galway Bay.
A SmartOcean-IRCSET funded project with strong industry support from
Mainstream Renewable Power to design, build and test a collaborative
GeoInformatics demonstrator platform for Integrated Sea Information System
(ISIS) to reduce risk and aid decision-making in locating suitable sites and &
operating off-shore wind farms. This demonstrator project will form part of the
larger ISIS consortium Eu proposal bid in 2013/2014. Other industry partners
include ESRI Ireland as well as inputs from Microsoft and OSiSoft. Web-site =
www.isispilot.com. Project commenced 1st May 2012. User needs almost
finalised and initial web-site in process of construction.
HF Radar station data collection and analysis. SmartBay is working on the
deployment of in situ sensors to help with validation of data from the recently
deployed HF radar stations in Galway bay.
Part of a INFORMAR & SmartBay project to investigate geospatial multimedia
for various marine and coastal mapping and monitoring projects. Initial web
site (www.ubipix.com) up and running with plans to implement online
visualisation functions for both wider community participation (crowdsourcing) as well as sea-floor mapping categorisation & mapping. This
technology has also been submitted to ESA, under a recent call, for critical
infrastructure monitoring in the marine environment.
A series of final year undergraduate projects based around two proposed
SMART buoy locations (Mace Head and off Inish Meain). Students will assess,
for a range of oceanographic parameters, over what footprint for a given buoy,
data for a given parameter falls within a specified range. Parameters will
include temperature, salinity, chlorophyll-a, CDOM, nutrients, oxygen and total
alkalinity. Data/sample collection will be carried out from RV Celtic Voyager,
20-23rd June 2012 (weather permitting).
For details of how to obtain more information on these projects, how to access
SmartBay and funding contact info@smartbay.ie
www.smartbay.ie