Towards low-cost autonomous underwater vehicle applications in the Egyptian marine industry

Summary

In recent years, Egypt’s vision regarding its national growth has taken a very solid form through the announcement of Sustainable Development Strategy EGYPT 2030. A core pillar of the development plan spans multiple layers of the economic sector, aiming at creating trade surplus and sustainable growth. Enforced by the strategy, the oil and gas sector is implementing a transformative program targeting operational efficiency and autonomy. As per a report published by Robotics Tomorrow, technological advances in robotics and AI have been adopted by industry key-players and the annual revenue of robotics-driven oil and gas industry can grow between 15% and 20% up to 2028. The Egyptian industry thus requires significant transformation on both managerial and technological levels to keep pace and remain relevant. Food security also lies in the heart of Egypt’s 2030 vision, aiming at import reduction. Egypt relies heavily on Aquaculture for food supply, but recent reports show that the process is heavily inefficient due to lack of modern technology. Increasing fish-based food supply is crucial to the food national security agenda, considering the fluctuations in the imports market due to recent political crises. Apart from civilian applications, Egyptian borders have always been a sensitive issue, especially aquatic borders in the Mediterranean and Red seas. Underwater minesweeping and rescue missions need to be less costly, more rapid, and more considerate towards operator safety.

Inspired by these different themes, this research aims at developing a moderately-priced autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) equipped with a highly robust navigational system. The project focuses on benchmarking proposed contributions against industry and literature mainstream algorithms as well testing using ground truth measurements. Furthermore, the project aims at creating a hierarchical software architecture flexible enough to accommodate several relevant applications without needing to customize different solutions.

Achievements

List of Publications from the Project

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