PIRATE Autonomous Marine Robotics Project

Monitoring marine ecosystems and tracking underwater animals are fundamental tasks in marine science and conservation. Traditional observation methods rely heavily on manual surveys, diver-based monitoring, or stationary sensor infrastructures, which can be expensive, labor-intensive, and spatially limited. Recent advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, and embedded computer vision are enabling a new generation of autonomous marine platforms capable of collecting environmental data with minimal human intervention.

The PIRATE project (Precision Imaging Real-time Autonomous Tracker and Explorer) explores the integration of autonomous surface vehicles, acoustic localization, and onboard visual perception to enable persistent observation of marine environments. The system is designed to autonomously navigate predefined routes, localize acoustically tagged underwater targets, and capture visual observations using onboard cameras and real-time computer vision algorithms.