Towards a Heterogeneous Robotic System for Autonomous Inspection in Mariculture

This paper presents an overview and preliminary results of the HEKTOR (Heterogeneous Autonomous Robotic System in Viticulture and Mariculture) project. An survey of applications of a heterogeneous cooperative autonomous robotic system, consisting of aerial, surface and underwater vehicles, in mariculture scenarios is presented. Target mariculture applications of the HEKTOR robotic system are autonomous fish net cage inspection (biofouling and damage detection) as well as biomass estimation. Furthermore, detailed description of the acquired autonomous vehicles is given, namely unmanned aerial vehicle and remotely operated vehicle, as well as the catamaran-shaped autonomous surface vehicle that is developed in the scope of the project.