Today marks the start of the four-year Horizon Europe MERLIN project on the demonstration of long-endurance intelligent multi-purpose autonomous vehicles for marine applications. This 8 million € Research and Innovation project comprising 18 partners from across Europe seeks to exploit long-endurance operational capabilities offered through the use of hydrogen fuel cells and renewable energy installed onboard Unmanned Surface Vessels (USV) and Autonomous Underwater Vessels (AUVs). The USV and AUVs will be capable of navigating and operating autonomously based on AI algorithms without the need for human intervention. A Mission Remote Control Centre (MRCC) will permit data from the autonomous vessels to be transmitted to the base. Conversely, the MRCC will allow the transmission of commands from the supervisor to the robotic vehicles. The vehicles will incorporate advanced surface and underwater grasping capability for the collection of samples, handling, installation and recovery of sensors using custom-built robotic arms. The USV will provide geo-tagging reference data to the AUVs when they operate underwater and be able to track them during the mission. The USV will be able to navigate from its base to the location of the mission where the AUVs will be released. At the end of the mission, the AUVs will dock again with the USV so they can be safely returned to base. The vehicles will be capable of operating independently as well as in combination with support vessels. The demonstration activities include three different high-value use cases, including marine habitat monitoring off the coast of Barcelona in the vicinity of the OBSEA observatory, seabed mapping at Kolumbo underwater volcano in the Aegean Sea, and infrastructure inspection at Klaipeda Port.

The project will build further on the achievements of the very successful ENDURUNS project completed in July 2023.

The MERLIN project is a four-year project funded under the European Union’s Horizon Europe Grant Agreement: 101189796. The project is a collaboration between the University of Birmingham, Space Applications Services N.V., Graal Tech S.R.L.., ALTUS LSA Commercial and Manufacturing S.A., Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, On Air S.R.L. Hysytech S.R.L., National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, AIDEAS OU, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, ENGITEC Systems International Ltd., Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Valstybes Imone Klaipedos Valstybinio Juru Uosto Direkcija, TUCO Yacht Vaerft APS, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, UAB “ACRUX Cyber Services”, and MC Baltics.

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References

2024

Sánchez, P. J. Bernalte; Márquez, F. P. García; Papaelias, M.; Lee, D.: Life cycle cost analysis of an autonomous underwater vehicle that employs hydrogen fuel cell. In: vol. 299, 2024. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)

2023

Sanchez, P. J. Barnalte; Márquez, F. P. García; Papaelias, M.: Life cycle assessment of an autonomous underwater vehicle that employs hydrogen fuel cell. In: vol. 6, 2023. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)
Sanchez, P. J. B.; Marquez, F. P. G.; Papaelias, M.: Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of ENDURUNS Project: Autonomous Marine Vehicles. vol. 409, EDP Sciences, 2023. (Type: Conference | Links | BibTeX)
Sanchez, P. J. B.; Marquez, F. P. Garcia; Papaelias, M.; Marini, S.; Gjeci, N.: Life Cycle Assessment of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. ENDURUNS Project Case. In: vol. 160, pp. 266-271, 2023. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)

2022

Sánchez, P. J. B.; Márquez, F. P. G.; Papaelias, M.; Marini, S.; Govindaraj, S.; Durand, L.: Innovative Technologies Developed for Autonomous Marine Vehicles by ENDURUNS Project. In: vol. 302, pp. 279-290, 2022. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)
Sanchez, P. J. B.; Marquez, F. P. G.; Papaelias, M.; Marini, S.; Govindaraj, S.: Enduruns Project: Advancements for a Sustainable Offshore Survey System Using Autonomous Marine Vehicles. In: vol. 144, pp. 363-378, 2022. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)

2021

Bernalte, P. J.; Márquez, F. P. G.; Marini, S.; Bonofoglio, F.; Barbieri, L.; Gjeci, N.; Ottaviani, E.; Govindaraj, S.; Coene, S.; But, A.; Pedersen, J.; Vetke, C.; Madricardo, F.; Foglini, F.; Antonini, M.; Montenegro, S.; Weiss, P.; Nowak, K.; Peer, M.; Gobert, T.; Turetta, A.; Chatzidouros, E.; Lee, D.; Yamas, T.; Papaelias, M.: New approaches for renewable energy management in autonomous marine vehicles. CRC Press/Balkema, 2021. (Type: Conference | Links | BibTeX)
Sánchez, P. J. B.; Asensio, M. T.; Papaelias, M.; Márquez, F. P. G.: Life Cycle Assessment in Autonomous Marine Vehicles. In: vol. 79, pp. 222-233, 2021. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)
Sánchez, P. J. B.; Junior, V. L. J.; Papaelias, M.; Márquez, F. P. G.: Life Cycle Assessment of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. In: vol. 79, pp. 577-587, 2021. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)

2020

Marini, S.; Gjeci, N.; Govindaraj, S.; But, A.; Sportich, B.; Ottaviani, E.; Márquez, F. P. G.; Sanchez, P. J. B.; Pedersen, J.; Clausen, C. V.; Madricardo, F.; Foglini, F.; Bonofiglio, F.; Barbieri, L.; Antonini, M.; Camacho, Y. S. M.; Weiss, P.; Nowak, K.; Peer, M.; Gobert, T.; Turetta, A.; Chatzidouros, E.; Lee, D.; Zarras, D.; Steriotis, T.; Charalambopoulou, G.; Yamas, T.; Papaelias, M.: Enduruns: An integrated and flexible approach for seabed survey through autonomous mobile vehicles. In: vol. 8, no. 9, 2020. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)
Sánchez, P. J. B.; Papaelias, M.; Márquez, F. P. G.: Autonomous underwater vehicles: Instrumentation and measurements. In: vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 105-114, 2020. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)
Segovia, I.; Pliego, A.; Papaelias, M.; Márquez, F. P. García: Optimal management of marine inspection with autonomous underwater vehicles. In: vol. 1001, pp. 760-771, 2020. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)