On Friday 19th November 2021 took place the final survey that concluded the TNA experiments that are part of the EUMarineRobots project. The last TNA, whose end-user is the University of Southampton, consisted in gathering image data from different habitats with Sparus II AUV with a downward looking high-resolution camera.
The data gathering places were a posidonia site south of Sant Feliu de Guixols’ harbor and a possible Maërl site in front of Lloret de Mar. The TNA was executed remotely. The end-users provided the different missions and camera parameters and the data was gathered onsite. A step that proved difficult due to the constant bad weather at sea since last summer that only provided small windows of opportunity.
Now the University of Southampton will process the data to obtain image mosaics to characterize the local distribution and state of conservation of vulnerable habitats in complex terrains and will help establish reference sites for future monitoring.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the end-users that requested access to our installations and made this project possible.
