The 1st GALATEA Blue Growth Accelerator Call for voucher granted 24 innovative SMEs from 5 European countries, with a total number of 14 funded projects. This call aimed to support the development of innovative cross-sectoral and cross-border technologies, services or products addressing the 22 challenges identified in 4 key Blue Growth domains: Smart Port, Smart Ship, Smart Shipyard and Maritime Surveillance.
Here is a summary of each project, depending on the Voucher type: Development and technology transfer projects (already finished) and Prototyping and Large-scale demonstrator projects (on-going)
Prototyping and Large-scale demonstrator projects
KTMS
Brief description
KTMS is a prototyping project developed by Beyond The Sea (France) and Inloc Robotics (Spain). KTMS’s development of technologies includes kite management techniques and an automatic steering system. The kite, connected to a fixed point on the ship, will move or remain stationary depending on the desired pulling force, all in complete safety.
Aims of the project
By taking advantage of the wind, which is a 100% renewable energy, it will reduce the energy needs of ships, while proportionally reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. The kite, in addition to helping to propel the boat, makes it lighter by its vertical traction, further reducing total energy requirements. Thus, depending on the desired efficiency, it will be possible to sail without the combustion engine.
Progress to date
For the first stage of the project KTMS, the partners have focused their work on 2 elements:
- The preliminary study of the system modelling for the autonomous kite and
- The selection of the suitable sensors for the control and monitoring of the kite.
The main goal of this first step was to show the dynamic equations explicitly, the set of variables that could be measured or estimated, and the relation between them.
The project aims at offering wings of all sizes, capable of handling some or all the energy needed to pull the ship, depending on the navigation area, the performance and characteristics of the boat. Therefore, the partners have reached their first objectives and are currently preparing the second phase that will lead to a prototype.
NAUSEA 4.0
Brief description
NAUSEA 4.0 project combines real time videos, with new generation object recognition algorithms and data analytics to improve the daily operations and management of ports and marine infrastructures. This cross-border project is led by the Spanish IMCW Europe SL. and the Greek SAMMY PC.
Aims of the project
Advanced digital services for monitoring in real time the occupancy of the berth spaces, analysis of the maritime traffic inside the harbors and early warning notification systems is planned to be delivered, with the aim to provide added value to the marina administration and the communication between the marinas and sea travelers.
Progress to date
After analyzing the current state-of-the-art of ‘yacht detection’ algorithms and defining the appropriate hardware solutions for the pilot demonstration, the creation of a training dataset was initialized, with the collection and segmentation of 500 yacht images from the marina environment for algorithms training.
Based on the system’s architecture, a beta version of NAUSEA 4.0 system’s components was designed and implemented in Sammy’s marina management software, in order for marina administrators to preview its functionality and provide further feedback for upgrades and redesign potential needed before the final pilot integration. Furthermore, algorithm training development was completed with the collection and segmentation of 3.000 yacht images from real marina environment.
Also, the Initial definition of the use cases’ SLAs, KPIs, and security requirements combined with the development of the applications beta version constitutes the milestones achieved so far.
Board device in marina environment Board device detection
This has been a review of the 1st Call for Vouchers Prototyping and Large-scale demonstrator projects. We will inform you about new news soon. Meanwhile, keep an eye on our website and social media for latest news on the projects.
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