SiPLABoratory

TUNAMOTION visit grant under AquaExcel3.0

AquaExcel 3.0 is an European project funded under the European Union Horizon 2020 Transnational Infrastructure Access (TNA) program. This project aims at enhancing aquaculture throughout Europe, by promoting experimental and scientific personnel exchange between institutions. TUNAMOTION aims at measuring acoustic particle motion of bluefin tuna in aquaculture tanks and at sea (see trial with video). The AQUAEXCEL 3.0 project is funded with a total of approximately 9.9 Meuro for 60 month. Starting date: November 2020. Partnership: INRAE (coordinator) + 21 EU institutions. People involved from SiPLAB: S.M. Jesus (visit grantee) [more...].

K2D - Knowledge and Data from the Deep Space

K2D is funded by FCT under the MIT-Portugal program research collaboration within the AIR Centre program. Our vision is to make feasible the usage of telecommunications submarine cables for ocean observation and monitoring, through the development of the electronic components and sensors for collecting complex and extensive physical, chemical, biological and environmental parameters. This project is funded with approximately 1.5 Meuro for 36 month (contract no. 045941). Starting date: 1-July-2020. Partnership: DSTelecom (coordinator), ASN-Alcatel Submarine Networks, CMEMS/U.Minho, CINTAL, ISISE/U.Minho, U.Azores, AIR Centre, INESC-TEC and MIT. People involved from CINTAL/SiPLAB: S.M. Jesus, A.J. Silva, R. Viegas, R. Duarte and F. Zabel. [more...].

EMSO-PT - European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatory - Portugal

EMSO-PT is the Portuguese Research Infrastructure part of the large-scale EMSO - European Multidisciplinary Observation Network of fixed point, deep sea multidisciplinary observatories, with the scientific objective of real-time, long-term monitoring of environmental processes related to the interaction between the geosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere. It is a geographically distributed infrastructure to be located at key sites in EU waters, spanning the Arctic, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, up to the Black Sea. Strating date: June 2018. End date: 30 March 2022 (after extension). Partnership: IMAR (Coordinator), CCMAR, CINTAL, FFC, INESC, IPMA, ISEP, IST, UA, UE, UP, UAc. People involved from CINTAL: S.M. Jesus and P. Felisberto. [...more]. Official EMSO web site www.emso-eu.org.

JONAS - Joint Framework for Ocean Noise in the Atlantic Seas

JONAS addresses threats to biodiversity from underwater noise pollution on sensitive species in the NE Atlantic by streamlining ocean noise monitoring and risk management on a transnational basis. Atlantic area states need a consistent way to resolve this common transboundary challenge. Jonas will develop and pilot a noise-monitoring platform, harmonize technical approaches to MSFD and MSP requirements, and promote the adoption of quieter operational practices among users of the NE Atlantic marine space. Start date: 25-Mar-2019, Duration: 42 months, End date: 24-Sep-2022; Funding: 2.8 Million euro.
Partnership: UCC (IR-Coordinator), MS (UK), CEFAS (UK), QO (FR), SHOM (FR), UPC (SP), PLOCAN (SP), UALG (PT) and IH( PT). People involved from UALG: S.M. Jesus, O. Rodriguez, P. Felisberto, P. Santos and A. Santos [more...].

SAVE WHALES 2019

This project will address the conception, implementation and test of an autonomous system for detecting whales in the vicinity of shipping routes off the southwest coast of Crete and warn passing by ships. Start date: 1-Apr-2019, Duration: 36 months
Partnership: FORTH (Greece), PELAGOS (Greece), Marine Traffic (Greece), Green2Sustain (Greece) and CINTAL. People involved from CINTAL: S.M. Jesus [more...].

OceanTech - Collaborative vehicles and operation management systems for deep sea exploration

OCEANTECH is funded by "Programa Mobilizadores" of Portugal 2020 research program is as a joint strategic research and development programme, whose main goals include the development, production and delivery of new products, processes and services for deep ocean exploration, which are to be released in a global market. This project is funded with approximately 10 Meuro for 36 month. Starting date: June 2018. Partnership: Abyssal (Coordinator) and co-promoted by IPMA, CEIIA, TEKEVER AS, OceanScan, Universidade do Porto, TEKEVER ASDS, Usimeca, University of Algarve, Critical Materials, TEKEVER TI and Instituto Superior Técnico. People involved from CINTAL/SiPLAB: A.J. Silva, S.M. Jesus. [more...].

Modular Platform for Research, Test and Validation of Technologies Supporting a Sustainable Blue Economy Technology (TEC4SEA)

The TEC4SEA research infrastructure is a unique and pioneer platform in Europe to support research, development, and test of marine robotics, telecommunications and sensing technologies for monitoring and operating in the ocean environment. TEC4SEA brings together a set of laboratories, testbeds, equipments and support facilities for experiments in controlled and real environments. Partnership: INESC-Porto (Coordinator-IT), CINTAL, LARSyS. People involved from CINTAL/SiPLAB: A.J. Silva, S.M. Jesus.[...more]. Official web site www.tec4sea.com.

SEAOX - Using acoustics for monitoring the metabolism of marine ecosystems

SEAOX is an FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) funded project that aims at using the properties of sound propagation in ocean water as a proxy of the amount of oxygen bubbles to monitor the photosynthetic production of marine plants. Unlike other methods that simply provide local oxygen measurements (water analysis, oxygen probes), acoustic based methods can offer integral information over a given area and a given time interval. This project is funded by FCT with a total amount of 197k Euro for three years. Starting date: June 1st, 2016. Partnership: CINTAL (Coordinator) and CCMAR. People involved from UALG: P. Felisberto and S.M. Jesus.

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SUB-ECO - Acoustic Surveillance System

SUB-ECO is funded by the Ministery of Defense (Portugal) and aims at reinforcing the capabilities of national underwater surveillance using passive detection of illicit activities of both surface and submerged ships off the coast of Portugal. This project is funded with a total amount of 1.1M Euro for three and a half years. Starting date: October 1st, 2015. Partnership: PT Navy IH (Coordinator), Esquadron 601 (Air Force), CISMIL, MARSENSING and CINTAL.
People involved from CINTAL: S.M. Jesus [more...].

EMSODEV - EMSO implementation and DEVelopment of instrumentation module

EMSO - European multidisciplinary Seafloor & water column ObservatoryDEV is a H2020 project that catalyses the full implementation and operation of the EMSO distributed Research Infrastructure, through the development, testing and deployment of an EMSO Generic Instrument Module (EGIM). This module will ensure accurate, consistent, comparable, regional scale, long-term measurements of ocean parameters, which are key to addressing urgent societal and scientific challenges such as climate change, ocean ecosystem disturbance, and marine hazards. Project ends on February 2019. Partnership: INGV (Coordinator-IT), IFREMER (FR), HCMR (GR), CSIC (GR), NERC (UK), MI (IR), Uni. Bremen (GE), IPMA (Cintal as third party-PT), GeoEcoMar (RO), SLR (IR) and SPA-ENG (IT).
People involved from CINTAL: Sérgio M. Jesus [more...].

BIOCOM - Building signaling methods for underwater communications with bioacoustic noise characteristics

This project aims at studying bioacoustic noise patterns in the area of Cabo Frio and extract diel, cyclic, frequency and amplitude characteristics that may be used for underwater communications' signal modulation.
Partnership: IEAPM (Coordinator). People involved from UALG: S.M. Jesus (as external visitor) [more...].

STRONGMAR - STRengthening MARritime Technology Research Center

STRONGMAR is an H2020 EU project funded with 999k Meuro under the Twinning program for a duration of three years. This projext aims at creating solid and productive links in the global field of marine science and technology between INESC TEC and established leading research European institutions, capable of enhancing its scientific and technological capacity and linked institutions, helping raising its staff's research profile and its recognition as an European maritime research center of excellence. Starting date: January 1st, 2016 (tentative). Partnership: INESC-TEC (PT-Coordinator), Heriot-Watt University (UK), NATO Science Org. (BE), University of Girona (ES), Univ. of Aberdeen UK) and CINTAL(PT).
People involved from CINTAL: S.M. Jesus, A. Silva, O Rodriguez and P. Felisberto [more...].

2DeepScape - Towards deep sea soundscaping

2DEEPSCAPE is funded by FCT under the MIT research collaboration within the AIR Centre program. Our vision is to make feasible the deployment of large swarms of miniature drifters/gliders to enable new insights into physical-biological dynamics of the deep ocean with the objectives of: be environmentally friendly and non­-invasive; be simple, reliable and low cost; and possess high autonomy and energy harvesting capabilities. This project is funded with approximately 99keuro for 12 month (contract MIT-­EXPL/IRA/0070/2017). Starting date: 2-Jan-2018. Partnership: U.Minho (Coordinator) and co-promoted by CINTAL and Marsensing. People involved from CINTAL/SiPLAB: A.J. Silva, S.M. Jesus. [more...].

Widely Scalable Mobile Underwater Sonar Technology (WiMUST)

The main objective of WiMUST is to use existing and develop new state of the art underwater robotic technology for efficient geo-physical exploration of surficial sediment properties. This project is funded by the EU under Horizon 2020 program, with 3.9 MEuro for 3 years. Starting date: February 1st, 2015. Partnership: UNIGE-ISME (Coordinator-IT), IST-ID (PT), UH (UK), Evologics (GE), Graal-Tech (IT), CGG Services (FR), Geo-Marine (The Netherlands), Geosurveys (PT) and CINTAL (PT).
People involved from CINTAL: Sérgio M. Jesus. WiMUST project official page [...more]

Moving Sands - Equilibrium State of Crenulated Coasts (MOSES - PTDC/GEO-GEO/3981/2012)

The main objectives of MOSES are: (i) to quantify the amount of sediment crossing the shore in a headland-beach system through a multi level approach; (ii) to produce a tool in a Geographical Information System (GIS) environment in order to characterize the equilibrium state of the beaches in crenulated coasts according to different wave climate and sedimentary transport. This project is funded by PTDC programme, with 150.000 Euro for 2 years. Starting date: not set yet.
Partnership: UAlg-University of Algarve, UL-University of Lisbon and CINTAL-Centro de Investigação Tecnológica do Algarve.
People involved: Delminda Moura (Coordinator-UAlg) and António J. Silva (CINTAL). [...more]

Experiment for Detection and Localization of Whale Sounds (EDELWEIS)

The main objective of EDELWEIS is to conduct a controlled detection and localization experiment emulating whales' monitoring in view of performing a monitoring program of sperm whale community in the Mediterranean Trench off the south western coast of Greece. This project is funded by Ocean Care CH, with 30.000 Euro for 1 year. Starting date: March 1, 2014.
Partnership: UNIBAS-University of Basel (CH), FORTH - Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics (GR), PCRI - Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute (GR) and CINTAL-Centro de Investigação Tecnológica do Algarve (PO).
People involved: Manolakis Sifalakis (Coordinator-UNIBAS), Emmanuel Skarsoulis (FORTH), Alexandros Frantzis (Pelagos) and Sérgio Jesus (CINTAL). [...more]

Cooperative Glider Navigation and Acoustic Tomography (COGNAT - PTDC/MAR/112446/2009)

In COGNAT a commercially available underwater glider is used for ocean acoustic tomography by towing an horizontal line array of acoustic sensors. This project is funded by PTDC programme, with 120.000 Euro for 2 years. Starting date: June 1st, 2011. Partnership: INESC - Instituto Nacional de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores do Porto. People involved: Aníbal Matos (Coordinator) and CINTAL - Centro de Investigação Tecnológica do Algarve, António J. Silva (CINTAL). [...more]

Vector sensor system for ocean exploration (SENSOCEAN - PTDC/EEA-ELC/104561/2008)

SENSOCEAN is a project aiming at developing an acoustic vector sensor array (VSA) for an underwater mobile platform (AUV) with application in acoustical exploration of the marine environment. Acoustic vector sensors measure both pressure and the three components of particle velocity. This project is funded by PTDC programme, with 197.445 Euro for 3 years. Starting date: January 1st, 2010. Partnership: CINTAL - Centro de Investigação Tecnológica do Algarve. People involved: P. Felisberto (Coordinator), O. Rodriguez, P. Santos and S.M. Jesus (CINTAL). [...more]

Ocean Acoustic Exploration (OAEx - 230855)

OAEx is an exchange project funded under the EU Marie-Curie initiative that aims at reinforcing links, exchanging experiences and methodologies between european and non-european partners in the field of ocean exploration using acoustics. This project is funded by EU under FP7 IRSES program with 187.2 kEuro for 3 years. Starting date: February 1st, 2009. Partnership: CINTAL - Centro de Investigação Tecnológica do Algarve (beneficiary), ULB - Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), COPPE - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brasil), IEAPM - Instituto de Estudos do Mar Almirante Paulo Moreira (Brasil) and C-MARS Canadian Marine Acoustic Remote Sensing Facility (UVic, Canada). People involved: members of all institutions. [...more]

Project terminated in August 31, 2012.

Underwater Acoustic Network (UAN - 225669)

UAN objective is to conceive, develop and test at sea an innovative wireless network integrating submerged, terrestrial and aerial sensors for the protection of off-shore and coastline critical infrastructures. This project is funded by EU under FP7 Collaborative project ICT/Security with 2.95 MEuro for 3 years. Starting date: October 1st, 2008. Partnership: CINTAL - Centro de Investigação Tecnológica do Algarve (coordinator), SSI - Selex Sistemi Integrati (Italy), Stifetsen SINTEF ICT (Norway), ISME - Interuniversity Centre of Integrated Systems for the Marine Environment (Italy), Swedish Defence Research Agency FOI (Sweden) and Kongsberg Maritime (Norway). People involved: A.Silva, P.Felisberto, S.M.Jesus (CINTAL), M.Cresta, R.Massimeli (SSI), T.Reinen, J.Hovem, E.Kampenhoy (SINTEF), A.Caiti, A.Trucco and M.Palmeses (ISME), I.Karasalo, L.Abrahamsson, T.Oberg (FOI), Thor Husoy and Jan-Erik Faugstadmo (KM). [official UAN project web site [...more]
Project terminated in September 30, 2011.

Wave Energy Acoustic Monitoring (WEAM - PTDC/ENR/70452/2006)

WEAM aims at developing, testing and validating a monitoring system for determining underwater acoustic noise generated by wave energy-based generators and its impact in the sea fauna of. This study will be able to extend noise predictions to farms of wave generators with pre-determinined configurations. This project is financed by PTDC programme, with 182.4 kEuro for 3 years. Starting date: November 1st, 2007. Partnership: WEC - Wave Energy Center (coordinator) and CINTAL - Centro de Investigação Tecnológica do Algarve. People involved: A. Sarmento (coordinator), S. Patrício (WEC), C. Soares and S.M. Jesus (CINTAL). [...more]
Project terminated in April 30, 2011.

Probabilistic High-Frequency Ocean Tomography for Underwater Communications and Navigation
(PHITOM - PTDC/EEA-TEL/71263/2006)

PHITOM aims at developing and applying techniques of ocean acoustic tomography (OAT) to the HF signals used in digital communications incorporating into the receiver some awareness of the environment and the spatial configuration of the acoustic link that is almo current underwater modems. Having this capability built into the receiver is very appealing for a number of reasons. This project is financed by the PTDC programme, with 172 kEuro for 3 years. Starting date: December 1st, 2007. Partnership: Instituto Superior Tecnico - IST (coordinator) and Centro de Investigação Tecnológica do Algarve (CINTAL). People involved: J.P. Gomes (coordinator), J. Xavier (IST), A. Gomes and S.M. Jesus (CINTAL). [...more]
Project terminated in May 31, 2011.

Non-cooperant Underwater Acoustic Channel Estimation (NUACE)

NUACE aims at developing, testing and validating environmental based techniques for determining the underwater channel impulse response for matched-filtering and channel equalization usage in MFP and Time-Reversal methods. Applications sought are target detection and localization as well as underwater communications. This project was funded by POSI programme, with 97.5 kEuro for 3 years. Starting date: January 1st, 2004. Partnership: CINTAL (coordinator) and Instituto Hidrográfico (Lisbon). People involved: S.M. Jesus, C. Soares and A. Silva (CINTAL), and J. Onofre (IH). [...more]
Project terminated in September 30, 2007.

Environmental assessment with a Random Array of Acoustic Receivers (RADAR)

RADAR follows under the steps of the AOB-REA (see below) and aims to develop of a random system of acoustic receivers for estimating the equivalent environmental model best describing the acoustic field. This project was funded by POCTI programme, with 80 kEuro for 3 years. Starting date: October 1st, 2004. Partnership: CINTAL (coordinator) and Instituto Hidrográfico (Lisbon). People involved: S.M. Jesus, A. Silva, F. Zabel and C. Martins (CINTAL), and J. Onofre (IH).[...more]
Project terminated in September 30, 2007.

Underwater Acoustic Barriers (UAB)

UAB aims at studying, develop and test in the field the concept of an underwater acoustic barrier for detecting intruders in a given area, that can be an harbour, bay, or strait. This project is financed by the POCTI programme, with 72 keuros for 2 years. Starting date: January 1st, 2006. Coordinator: S.M. Jesus (CINTAL). Participants: J. Onofre (Instituto Hidrográfico, Lisbon). People involved from SiPLAB: S.M. Jesus, A. Silva, F. Zabel and C. Martins (CINTAL). [...more]
Project terminated in December 31, 2007.

Acoustic Tomography Monitoring System (ATOMS)

The ATOMS project aims at developing an integrated system for large-scale ocean monitoring, using acoustic tomography. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, an experimental test will be performed to characterize the upwelling filament structure off the Cape São Vicente. This project is financed by the POCTI programme, with 350 keuros for 4 years. Starting date: October 1st, 2000.Coordinator: S.M. Jesus (CINTAL). Participants: J. Onofre (Instituto Hidrográfico, Lisbon), P. Relvas (Univ. of Algarve) and P. Felisberto (Univ. Algarve). [...more]
Project terminated in December 31, 2004.

Passive Localization (Locapass)

LOCAPASS project main objective is to develop an acoustic passive localization integrated system using a single or a reduced number of acoustic sensors. The principle is based on the usage of the environmental information modeled by a numerical propagation model in order to discriminate the perturbation induced by the active sound source. This project is financed by FUP - Ministry of Defence (Portugal), with 25 keuros for 1.5 year. Starting date: July 1st, 2001. Coordinator: S.M. Jesus (CINTAL). Participants: Instituto Hidrográfico (Lisbon), SACLANTCEN (La Spezia, Italy). People involved from SiPLAB: S.M. Jesus, A. Silva and C. Soares (CINTAL). [...more]
Project terminated in July 31, 2003.

Coastal Passive Tomography (TOMPACO)

The main objective of this project is to develop a new method for underwater acoustic tomography that uses as source signal the noise emitted by ships of opportunity, received on vertical arrays distributed along the coast, with the objective of measuring the water temperature and currents of oceanographic interest. This project was done under contract from DUNE (Italy). Starting date: June 1st, 1999. Coordinator: Otello Gasparini (DUNE, Italy), Participants: Pierluigi Rosseto (Thetis, Italy), Alessandro Crise (OGS, Trieste, Italy) and under contract S.M. Jesus (CINTAL). People involved from SiPLAB: S.M. Jesus, O. Rodriguez, C. Lopes and P. Felisberto. [...more]
Project terminated in April 30, 2003.

Internal Tide Monitoring through Acoustic Tomography Experiments (INTIMATE)

Today acoustics is one of the main tools for ocean exploration. Inspired by a technique from biomedical engineering, Ocean Acoustical Tomography (OAT) consists of the use of one or more acoustic sensors/sources strategically distributed in a volume of water and simultaneously emitting and receiving coded signals. The ``comparison'' of the emitted and received signals allows for the acoustical characterization of the environment in between the source(s) and the receiver(s). The experiments that have been performed to date, mainly in deep water, showed that it is possible to estimate: (1) the temperature over the water column, (2) the physical characteristics of the sea bottom and (3) the velocity and direction of currents. This project is financed by the PRAXIS XXI program, with 225 keuros for 3 years. Starting date: January 1st, 1997. Coordinator: S.M. Jesus (CINTAL). Participants: E. Coelho (Instituto Hidrográfico, Lisbon), Y. Stephan (CMO-SHOM) and M. Porter (NJIT). [...more]
Project terminated in December 31, 2000.

Development of Vehicles and Advanced Systems for the Execution of Underwater Inspection Tasks (INFANTE)

The objectives of this project are the design and the construction of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), and the development and integration of advanced systems for navigation, guidance and control, acoustic communications and mission management. These systems will be tested in the lab. Once they are installed in the vehicle, they will be also tested in pool and sea trials. This project was financed by the PRAXIS XXI programme, with 255 keuros for 3 years. Starting date: May 1st, 1997. Coordinator: A. Pascoal (IST). Participants: RINAVE, S.M. Jesus (CINTAL), E. Coelho (Instituto Hidrográfico, Lisbon). People involved from SiPLAB: S.M. Jesus, A. Silva, C. Lopes and P. Felisberto.[...more]
Project terminated in April 30, 2001.

Geophysical Seafloor Exploration with a Towed Array in Shallow Water

The geophysical properties of marine sediments just beneath the seafloor are of great importance for modelling of coastal areas. Accurate knowledge of these properties allows for correct initialization and testing of environmental models and increase their capability for predicting changes in the morphology of the coastal line. Moreover, a geophysical description of shallow marine sediments is a requirement in a large number of applications, such as environmental monitoring, ecological studies, underwater acoustics, geotechnical exploration and soil stability testing. This project was funded under the European MAST2 programme, with 800 kecu for 3 years. Starting date: January 1st, 1993.Coordinator: S.M. Jesus (UALG). Participants: A. Caiti (Univ. Genova, Italy), H. Zambujo (Instituto Hidrográfico, Lisbon) and A. Kristensen (Saclantcen, Italy). People involved from SiPLAB: S.M. Jesus, O. Rodríguez and P. Felisberto. [...more]
Project terminated in March 30, 1996.

AO-Buoy JRP

This Joint Research Project (JRP) aims at the development and validation of acoustic-oceanographic remote sensing systems and data inversion-integration methods for a reliable, rapid environmental assessment (REA) of shallow water areas. In this project, adapted and newly developed air-dropped sonobuoys will have both acoustic and oceanographic sensors sparsely distributed in depth throughout the useful portion of the water column, referred herein as the AO-buoys. [...more]
Collaboration terminated on 2007

High - Frequency JRP

This collaboration addresses the improvement in understanding the propagation and scattering of high frequency acoustic waves (1-50 kHz) in the presence of oceanographic parameter variability in shallow water regions. This research will benefit understanding of uncertainty in acoustic communication signals due to variability in the environmental physical parameters. The modeling effort seeks to explain, and ultimately predict, the factors that significantly alter operational effectiveness of Acoustic Communications for applications such as the AUV, ASW and MCM detection and classification systems. The obtained knowledge will be utilized to establish basis for Barrier systems, Sonar detection (environmentally adaptive active sonar), AUV communication, AUV based tomography, environmental assessment using passive (ambient noise) array processing and mine counter measure. [...more]
Collaboration terminated on 2006

European Seafloor Observation Network

ESONET is an European Network of Excelence involving over 50 european institutions during 4 years with the aim of laying down the plans and necessary standards for a future network of land connected sites for ocean observation throughout Europe, from the North Sea to the west Mediterrenean. This project is financed by the EU under FP6 programme, with 7.5 Meuros for 4 years. Starting date: March 1st, 2007. Coordinator: Roland Person (Ifremer).People involved from SiPLAB: All. [...more]
Project terminated on March 2011