Reducing Risk in Aquaculture
Reducing Risk in Aquaculture
This project researched and developed novel concepts for autonomous operations and technology to improve safety and efficiency in aquaculture.
In particular, the project addressed daily operations and inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR) for exposed locations, but the project results are also applicable to more sheltered fish production. Moreover, the project assessed, utilized and adapted technology developed for subsea IMR in the oil and gas industry.
Advances in sensor technology, robotics, ICT, and localization methods create new opportunities for reducing operators' manual workload and exposure time on the facilities at sea, for preventing fish escape, and for improving safety and operational efficiency.
Current technologies and operations in fish farms are highly dependent on manual labor for cleaning and maintenance, which leads to close human interactions with tools and fish cage structures.
The sea-based aquaculture industry is one of the most dangerous occupations in Norway.
Moving fish farms into more exposed areas will lead to increased challenges related to the working environment and management of operations.
Hence, technological innovation and autonomy are important for future industry expansion. To ensure that the new concepts reduce risk to people and the environment, adequate risk management becomes even more important for sustainable fish farming operations in the future.
Project manager and principal investigator: Professor Ingrid Bouwer Utne
Publications in the project
Duration: 2016-2020
Funding source: Norwegian Research Council (Havbruk 2)
Project participants: NTNU and SINTEF Ocean. The project was associated with SFI Exposed Aquaculture Operations.
1 PhD student (Stian Sandøy), 1 Post Doc (Xue Yang), 1 senior scientist (Ingunn Marie Holmen)
Main supervisor for Ph.D.-student: Professor Ingrid Schjølberg, NTNU