SLU Aqua Sailor

SLU Aqua Sailor

Autonomous surface vehicles have a wide range of advantages compared to traditional ship-based data collection: they have minimal environmental impact, operate quietly, function in all weather conditions, and provide a smart and gentle form of data collection.

SLU Aqua Sailor is used in both research and environmental monitoring and offers a cheap and interference-free method for data survey. We also have satellite projects using similar drones in Australia and Hudson Bay (Canada).

Equipped with specially designed acoustic sensors, the unmanned SLU Aqua Sailor will measure the amount of fish and plankton thanks to new algorithms. The sensors reduce the need for traditional monitoring of fish and provides a more gentle sampling. With SLU Aqua Sailor, information on ocean conditions such as salinity and water temperature, are also measured, and via GPS researchers can continuously keep track of the location of the drone.

SLU Aqua Sailor now also has a logger that measures turbidity, chlorophyll a, and phycocyanin (cyanobacteria) using fluorescence.

The SLU Aqua Sailor drone was built in Norway and was purchased by the Department of Aquatic Resources in the autumn of 2018, with partial funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers. SLU Aqua Sailor is stationed at the Institute of Marine Research in Lysekil.

Fees

If you want to rent the SLU Aqua Sailor for scientific projects, the cost is 4,000 SEK per day, plus the cost of a pilot. The pilot can be external but must have relevant training.

Conditions

Since the SLU Aqua Sailor is powered solely by wind and does not have an emergency engine, it is primarily suited for surveys conducted some distance from the coast. All instruments are solar-powered, which means that during the winter months, sensors (especially the echo sounder) need to be used more sparingly (e.g., 1–2 minutes every ten minutes).

If access to the SLU Aqua Sailor is limited, the following order of priority applies:

1. Internal needs at SLU.  
2. Other needs where SLU has an interest in data collection.  
3. Others.

Questions and inquiries about SLU Aqua Sailor

Do you have questions or want to rent the SLU Aqua Sailor for scientific projects? Please contact Jonas Hentati Sundberg.

Previous expeditions

The islands Öland and Gotland

During the late spring and summer of 2020, 2021 and 2022 the SLU Aqua Sailor drone sailed between the great Swedish islands of Öland and Gotland and collected data on the amount of fish and zooplankton. The drone survey partly took place at the same time as the fisheries survey Sprat Acoustic Survey (Spras). Spras collects information on herring and sprat in the Baltic Sea, and is carried out with the research vessel R/V Svea. By matching data from Spras with data from the sailing drone, the researchers hope to gain better knowledge of how the Baltic Sea ecosystem works.

Mapping of fish in the Kattegat 2018

On its first trip in December 2018, SLU Aqua Sailor sailed over 600 km in the North Sea in the areas around Lilla Middelgrund and Fladen in the Kattegat Sea. Registered data will be used to improve the protection of the Kattegat's unique habitats.

Watch a video from SLU Aqua Sailor

SLU Aqua Sailor has a camera on board. The video below shows pictures from the sailing in the Kattegat.