Science To Impact Area

Autonomy, technology and digitisation

Advances in marine technology can deliver economic benefits and improve the management, sustainability and governance of marine and coastal environments. Our scientists, modellers and technologists operate at the forefront of marine technology development.

With an increasing global population and a drive towards green growth the exploitation of marine resources in key areas such as food production and renewable energy are inevitable. Key to the sustainable exploitation of the marine environment is our ability to develop smarter monitoring, provide expert interpretation of data and deliver policy relevant science.

PML is advancing the capability of marine observing systems to provide cost-effective and timely measurements of key environmental variables that are crucial for understanding and responding to environmental change.

Critical to the ocean economy is the sustainability and productivity of the oceans which will require smarter monitoring, modelling and data-driven management. Through development and adoption of new technologies, automation and citizen science we are lowering the cost of environmental observation. This means we can record past and future change at an unprecedented scale and by making this information widely available we can improve global resilience to environmental change.

The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development details the requirement for scientists to work with industry to develop new technologies aligned with sustainable development priorities. These priorities will require novel technologies to deliver cost effective marine data capture that is critical to delivering a complete ocean observing system. As a frontrunner in developing new marine technologies PML exercises its responsibility towards global capacity building, improving data literacy and filling data gaps.

We have strong relationships with an extensive range of commercial partners, which are considered crucial for the advancement of technology development within PML. PML chairs the Future Autonomous at Sea technologies (FAST) cluster, which is the largest marine autonomy cluster in the UK and has membership spanning the south west. This triple-helix cluster is largely comprised of industry partners complimented by leading academic organisations and government departments. The cluster exists to deliver advanced marine autonomy across numerous sectors including, offshore renewable energy, science, aquaculture and defence. The FAST cluster is also actively engaged with regulators such as the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to work develop suitable regulations for the operation of autonomous vessels.

The Western Channel Observatory (WCO) exemplifies PML’s combined strengths in advanced in situ smart monitoring; world leading remote sensing and ecosystem modelling. The WCO also forms the backbone of Smart Sound Plymouth, which is the UK’s platform for advanced technology development, led by PML.

PML Projects

Smart AUVs for detection and quantification of greenhouse gas seepage in the oceans

SmartAUVs will dramatically improve the monitoring capabilities of AUVs, by applying artificial intelligence (AI) in concert with specialized signal processing techniques to enable AUV decision autonomy, i.e., the ability to take intelligent action in real time based on sensor input,…

APICS

The Automated, in situ Plankton Imaging and Classification System (APICS) will radically improve the understanding of how environmental changes are affecting plankton, the microscopic organisms at the foundation of the marine food chain.

Biodiversity of the Coastal Ocean: Monitoring with Earth Observation (BiCOME)

BiCOME will develop a better understanding of how the community structure and function of coastal ecosystems will respond to the anthropogenic and natural drivers in a changing climate.

Copernicus Evolution: Research for harmonised and Transitional water Observation (CERTO)

CERTO will provide solutions to harmonise water quality products across a continuum of oceans, seas, coasts, estuaries, lagoons, rivers and lakes, to support industry, policy-makers and academia. The project will create a prototype system for Earth observation data that will…

NERC Earth Observation Data Analysis and Artificial-Intelligence Service (NEODAAS)

Plymouth Marine Laboratory have provided satellite data to support researchers since the 1990s and the range of services offered has been constantly evolving to meet their needs and the technology available. NEODAAS was recommissioned in 2019 by NERC for five…

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Other Projects

Smart Sound Plymouth website

Resources and Links

PML leads Smart Sound Plymouth
Smart Sound Plymouth is Britain’s platform for innovative marine technology development and is led by Dr James Fishwick from PML. It is Britain’s premier proving area for designing, testing and developing cutting edge products and services for the marine sector, and is ideally suited for building and supporting the next generation of advanced marine technologies.

PML is a founding board member of Ocean Futures
Ocean Futures is a global centre of excellence for the testing, development and manufacture of autonomy, digital and clean ocean technologies for the rapidly growing global ocean economy, as a key pillar of the country’s ambition to be a science and innovation superpower, with activity focussed on:

Autonomy – leading the demonstration and integration of marine autonomous systems for applications in defence, offshore renewable energy, aquaculture and emerging ocean economy application, estimated to be a £103bn market by 2030.
Digital Oceans – transforming our understanding of the ocean environment and safeguarding future maritime operations with integrated digital marine communications.
Maritime Net Zero– leading the transition to safe and secure maritime operations that will embrace a variety of alternative energy sources bespoke to vessel type and operation.