Aquaculture field robotics: Applications, lessons learned and future prospects

TL;DR

This paper reviews the use of underwater robots in aquaculture, highlighting challenges, lessons from field trials, and future opportunities to enhance autonomous operations in fish farming environments.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of current applications, lessons learned from field experiments, and future prospects for autonomous aquaculture robotics.

Findings

Field experiments reveal navigation challenges in dynamic environments

Lessons learned improve understanding of underwater vehicle autonomy

Future prospects include enhanced sensor capabilities and autonomous operations

Abstract

Aquaculture is a big marine industry and contributes to securing global food demands. Underwater vehicles such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are commonly used for inspection, maintenance, and intervention (IMR) tasks in fish farms. However, underwater vehicle operations in aquaculture face several unique and demanding challenges, such as navigation in dynamically changing environments with time-varying sealoads and poor hydroacoustic sensor capabilities, challenges yet to be properly addressed in research. This paper will present various endeavors to address these questions and improve the overall autonomy level in aquaculture robotics, with a focus on field experiments. We will also discuss lessons learned during field trials and potential future prospects in aquaculture robotics.