People on board

José Pinto

José Pinto

Why are you here?

I am in charge of developing the support for deliberative planning onboard the LSTS AUVs and shore-AUV satellite communications. I have been operating the AUVs during the sunfish experiment and, together with Margarida, we have developed the Neptus user interfaces that are used for operation and providing situation awareness of what is going on in the field.

What was your first reaction when you heard about this project?

I was just thrilled. Despite being aware of the work necessary for this kind of experiment, I thought we couldn't pass the opportunity to work with field scientists and actually advance their fields using our home-grown technologies.

What do you expect of Sunfish Tracking?

It has been lots of work preparing the experiment. If things actually work out as expected I will certainly feel accomplished and will be lots of fun to concentrate efforts with such a heterogeneous team of researchers.

What is most challenging for you in this project?

We usually operate LAUV vehicles close to the base station so that we can monitor and control the vehicle's execution. For this exercise we will need to rely on satellite communications only which means that, when the vehicle dives, is completely disconnected and autonomous.

What will you take away from this experience?

Proof that LAUV vehicles and our software can be used not only for near-shore operations but also open-sea scientific missions.

João Pereira

João Pereira

Why are you here?

I am here to coordinate the actions and interaction between the different platforms being used to achieve a common goal: Use the tools and systems developed by our group to help biology science to understand the Sunfish.
I am also the responsible for the AUVs hardware.

What was your first reaction when you heard about this project?

I felt excited! It is overwhelming to put the efforts of your daily work for the benefits of science.

What do you expect of Sunfish Tracking?

I expect to achieve the main goal, of course! I hope we get enough data to help our biology colleagues describing the sunfish behavior.

What is most challenging for you in this project?

The readiness necessary to engage all the systems and platforms to retrieve data from the fish habitat. We have in mind that the mission will be constrained by the weather and sea conditions. We just have to be opportunistic.

What will you take away from this experience?

The friendship with all the intervenients. These kind of experiments tend to consolidate the bonds among the group. I also hope to increase my experience in systems coordination.

Javier Gilabert

Javier Gilabert

Why are you here?

To participate in this very ambitious and astonishing projects gathering a complete set of underwater, surface and aerial autonomous vehicles working together. .

What was your first reaction when you heard about this project?

Amazing!, this is the kind of experiments any scientist would like to be involved. .

What do you expect of Sunfish Tracking?

What learned from this experiments will undoubtedly open the door to a broader scale of experiments with fish tagging. .

What is most challenging for you in this project?

Coordination, planning and fighting against the adverse elements. .

What will you take away from this experience?

Diplodus.

Artur Zolich

Artur Zolich

Why are you here?

Close cooperation of multidisciplinary researchers is a key for development of unique, state-of-the-solutions improving knowledge and understanding of our World. As a member of AMOS - Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems - at Norwegian University of Science of Technology, I am happy to take a closer look at current solutions in coordinated unmanned vehicles operations. Moreover, I am able to investigate areas of further development in near future.

What was your first reaction when you heard about this project?

I have learned about the project from my supervisor, Professor Tor Arne Johansen. I was very curious about the mission objectives, as oceanography and biology research weren't typical areas of my previous activities. I was very surprised and excited when I've learned about Sunfish behaviors and importance for research and ocean environment.

What do you expect of Sunfish Tracking?

I expect to create relations and join communication between researchers, especially those active in unmanned systems development and use. I also gain a lot of knowledge in the field of marine operations.

What is most challenging for you in this project?

Systems being used during the experiment have been improving for many years, with great effort and dedication of many talented people. Full understanding of way of control, capabilities and limitations of these mechanisms require time and training. Getting familiar with this knowledge is most challenging for me during Sunfish Tracking experiment.

What will you take away from this experience?

As mentioned above, main benefit for me is knowledge of highly specialized researchers working in the area of unmanned systems. Familiarity with current leading-edge technologies is also very important. Of course, work related gains are not the only one. The month spent in the beautiful coast of Algarve gave me better understanding of fascinating and reach Portuguese culture.

Francisco López Castejón

Francisco López Castejón

Why are you here?

I am here to provide sea current forecast in order to help in the planning of the AUV missions.

What was your first reaction when you heard about this project?

That it was an awesome project, to join a scientific and engineering goal using the last technologies about autonomous underwater vehicles.

What do you expect of Sunfish Tracking?

I will like to get experience in the use of the software to control and planning of the vehicles and visualization of the data collected, and to learn all the maneuver to deploy different vehicles as UAV, AUV or WaveGliders.

What is most challenging for you in this project?

My challenge in this project is to be able to provide current forecast that help to planning the vehicle mission and understand better the behavior of the Mola mola fish.

What will you take away from this experience?

I have achieved of my goals and I have gotten a lot of experience in multivehicle operation. At the same time I have been able to improve my skill in numerical modelling. And I have met a really nice group of people.

Margarida Faria

Margarida Faria

Why are you here?

To make sure everything is running smoothly with Hub (the web service for situational awareness) and T-Rex (the framework used for online planning) for UAVs. Also to give support as UAV operator, AUV operator and Neptus developer.

What was your first reaction when you heard about this project?

I was really excited as it was a real application of engineering developments to data collection for Biology.

What do you expect of Sunfish Tracking?

I expect that we show that the new tools now offered by several fields of engineering enable the collection of previously inaccessible data.

What is most challenging for you in this project?

The integration of so many different tools and goals.

What will you take away from this experience?

The most unusual demand of this experience was to integrate with the needs of biologists and oceanologists. I really enjoyed it and hope that in the future more developments are done in this tightly coupled way.