A research port test bed based on distributed optical sensors and sensor fusion framework for ad hoc situational awareness

Abstract

Abstract. Maritime study sites utilized as a physical experimental test bed for sensor data fusion, communication technology and data stream analysis tools can provide substantial frameworks for design and development of e-navigation technologies. Increasing safety by observation and monitoring of the maritime environment by new technologies meets forward-looking needs to facilitate situational awareness. Further, such test beds offer a solid basis for standardizing new technologies to advance growth by reducing "time to market" of up-to-date industrial products and technologies. Especially optical sensor technologies are well suited to provide a situational and marine environmental assessment of waterways for (i) online detection of relevant situations, (ii) collection of data for further analysis and (iii) reuse of data, e.g. for training or testing of assistant systems. The test bed set-up has to consider maintainability, flexibility and extensibility for efficient test set-ups. This means that new use cases and applications within the test bed infrastructure, here presented by a research port, can be easily developed and extended by installing new sensors, actuators and software components. Furthermore, the system supports reliable remote communication between onshore and offshore participants. A series of in situ experiments at the research port of Bremerhaven and in other maritime environments were performed, representing applications and scenarios to demonstrate the capability for the proposed system framework and design.

Safety–Security Analysis of Maritime Surveillance Systems in Critical Marine Areas

“…Coastal optical systems also stand out as an important alternative for the sustainability of maritime surveillance (Table 5). While the most important advantages of this alternative are its ability to provide high-resolution imagery in day and night conditions, as well as its uninterrupted surveillance and high diagnostic capabilities, its disadvantages are that it is affected by meteorological conditions such as fog, haze, and precipitation, and its effectiveness decreases with increasing distance [74]. The main data sources of the SafeShore project are coastal optical systems including lidar, electro-optics, and thermal cameras.…”

The Spiekeroog Coastal Observatory: A Scientific Infrastructure at the Land-Sea Transition Zone (Southern North Sea)

“…Further potential upgrades currently under consideration include a nutrient auto-sampler as well as an in situ submersible UV-photometer for high resolution optical nitrate determination. In addition to the usage of commercially available instruments and devices, also new sensors and sensor systems have been successfully tested under extreme conditions on the TSS (e.g., Rüssmeier et al, 2017).…”

Intelligent Marine Pollution Analysis on Spectral Data

“…Nevertheless, there is a need for machine learning algorithms to classify objects of interest efficiently. Currently, overall situation images of a maritime environment are realised based on the fusion of multispectral and multimodal sensors [12], [13], without taking advantage of the more advanced characterisation provided by hyperspectral techniques and their subsequent analysis.…”