Remote sensing and Artificial Intelligence will be used by the University's RAS LAB to identify pollution spillages.

The Sea Bot Prototype, a USV (Unmanned Surface Vehicle) is currently being developed at our University’s Robotics & Automated Systems Laboratory (RAS LAB), in the frame of the IRSAI project.

The project’s aim is to integrate remote sensing and Artificial Intelligence to monitor maritime activities and identify potential pollution spillages across Limassol Bay. The Sea Bot was successfully tested on March 22nd by the Lab's Lead Researcher, Dr George Demetriou, and postgraduate students who are working on the project. 

The objective of IRSAI is to enhance maritime surveillance capabilities in the coastal waters of Limassol by integrating multi-agent dual-use technology, both above the water's surface and underwater. Its primary aim is to significantly improve maritime surveillance, enabling effective patrolling of high-risk pollution-prone areas. This system will be dedicated to identifying instances of pollution violations, pinpointing their sources, gathering substantial evidence, predicting the trajectory of pollutants, and guiding timely and appropriate responses by management authorities.

The IRSAI project represents a pioneering effort to introduce and demonstrate innovative technologies in Cyprus for maritime surveillance, pollution detection, and management. These technologies have not been previously demonstrated in Cyprus, and few similar applications have been reported worldwide. By applying these in combination, the project aims to identify their limitations, reduce uncertainties, validate their effectiveness, understand how they work together, and optimize their use in the operational maritime environment. The current Technological Readiness Level (TRL) of these technologies is at a range of 4 to 5, indicating that they are at a stage where they have been validated in a lab environment but have not yet been demonstrated in an operational setting. The IRSAI project seeks to raise the TRL to 7 by demonstrating prototype systems in an operational environment, indicating that they are closer to being ready for practical use.