Autonomous Robotic Systems in Aquaculture
Speaker
Dr. Eleni Kelasidi
Senior Research Scientist, Autonomous and Robotic Aquaculture Systems Lab
Title
"Autonomous Robotic Systems in Aquaculture"
Abstract
An increasing world population raises concerns over food security which, consequently, opens new avenues for food production. Agriculture, Fisheries, and Aquaculture are important global contributors to the production of food from land and sea for human consumption. In the last decades, the aquaculture industry has been the faster-growing food-producing sector in the world while also being known for substantially higher Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE) risks, while still relying heavily on subjective and experience-based decisions and assessments, and intensive manual labor. Therefore, to target current and future challenges in aquaculture with the overall goal of improving efficiency, reducing risks and costs, and increasing production and sustainability, the industry has shown an increased interest in utilizing autonomy and robotic solutions in a variety of operations. Increasing the level of automation in high-risk operations within aquaculture would lead not only to economic but also social and ethical benefits. This talk will discuss the utilization of autonomous robotic solutions in the fish farming industry by presenting challenges, R&D solutions, and industrial applications in this sector. In addition, suggestions and guidelines on how autonomous operations in complex and dynamically changing environments can be realized by enabling underwater robots as a substitute. This is concluded with directions for future research and innovations needed to follow the currently emerging Precision Fish Farming (PFF) concept which outlines how innovative technologies and automation principles may be used to industrialize, digitize, and improve operations in fish farming.
About Speaker
Dr. Eleni Kelasidi is a Senior Research Scientist and head of SINTEF ACE-RoboticLab - Autonomous and Robotic Aquaculture systems Lab in SINTEF Ocean leading activities on autonomous systems and robotic solutions applied to the aquaculture industry and targeting interdisciplinary research to link the field of technology and biology. Eleni Kelasidi received a Ph.D degree in Engineering Cybernetics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 2015. In 2016, she was honored three-year VISTA (as a collaborative partnership between Statoil and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters) fellowship investigating Resident Robot Manipulators for Subsea IMR operations as a PostDoc Researcher (VISTA Scholar) at the CoE Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems, Department of Engineering Cybernetics at NTNU. She has acquired several projects targeting both fundamental knowledge and applied research and investigated problems towards the realization of autonomous robotic concepts in the aquaculture domain (e.g. Research Council of Norway: Project leader of 5 IPNs, 1 KSP, 1 FRIPRO-Young Researcher Talent, 3 RACE projects, and WP leader of two EU projects). Her research group’s work on robotic applications in the fish farming industry in SINTEF Ocean led to the development of the first robotic lab dedicated to the aquaculture domain.