NEWS & EVENTS

Recap of CREXDATA activities

Date: October 17, 2023

As we enter the final stretch of 2023, let’s have a recap and highlight some activities so far.

CREXDATA joined hands with partners like City of Dortmund Fire Department (FDDO), Universität Paderborn (UPB), and Deutsches Rettungsrobotik Zentrum (DRZ) and participated in the 112RESCUE fair from June 14-16, 2023, in Dortmund, Germany. Cutting-edge research and future technologies in flood and fire protection, digitalization, robotics, and more were showcased. The event provided an innovation platform for research institutes, companies, and start-ups to present projects and ideas, enhancing visibility and knowledge sharing. Highlighting the “Tage der Sicherheitsforschung” (Days of Security Research), representing CREXDATA, Jens Pottebaum from the Universität Paderborn (UPB) delivered a talk on June 15th as part of the “Zukunftstechnologien Teil 2″ (Future Technologies Part 2) session.

Jens Pottebaum at the “Future Technologies part 2” session

On June 14, 2023, at the event the Big Data and Edge Computing for Maritime Domain Awareness: Innovations and Solutions in Luleå, Sweden, CREXDATA’s partner MarineTraffic (MT) presented at a session discussing maritime challenges and innovations, including big data and edge processing, featuring three ongoing RIA projects: Crexdata, MobiSpaces, and VesselAI. During the event, the CREXDATA’s focus on real-time crisis management using streaming data for early anomaly detection and agile decision-making was presented in the context of maritime domain. The speakers of the session were Konstantina Bereta – Research Coordinator/Senior Researcher (MT), Georgios Grigoropoulos: Research Coordinator (MT), Spiros Mouzakitis: EPU-NTU, and Manolis Kaliorakis (MT).

Georgios Grigoropoulos: Research Coordinator at MarineTraffic

At the 2023 IEEE INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON Metrology for AeroSpace held on June 19-21 in Milan, Italy, Alexandros Troupiotis from the University of the Aegean, presented a paper on Building an Autonomous Boat: A Multidisciplinary Design Engineering Approach at the session: Metrology for Maritime Transport, Ports and Shipping.  The paper describes the work completed for the design and development of a prototype autonomous boat (or autonomous surface vessel), that is using onboard data sensors and processing, so as to navigate safely, without any input from shore. It outlines the path to development from initial concept and requirements, to detailed design of the physical and software systems, complete to the first sea trials. Overall this work demonstrates the potential of using open source software and off the shelf components to build a cost effective autonomous vessel with advanced capabilities. The system has been extensively tested in various environments, including open water testing, and the results demonstrate its capacity to navigate safely and efficiently.

Alexandros Troupiotis at the Metrology for Maritime Transport, Ports and Shipping session

Lastly, before the summer break, the Ro-Boat Race: A Challenge of Autonomous Robotics at Sea, co-organized by our partners, MarineTraffic and the University of the Aegean, was held on July 12, 2023, in Syros, Greece. This global university-level contest tasked teams with crafting inventive autonomous marine robotics systems for real-world scenarios. Its primary goal was to cultivate innovation while bolstering links between academia and industry, emphasizing relationship-building. Evaluation encompassed autonomous behavior, robotics, sensor fusion, boat design, and innovation. Teams showcased projects to an expert panel in systems engineering and naval architecture, with the winner determined by the highest score. The top three positions were awarded to the vessel of the team from the Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering of the Polytechnic School of the University of the Aegean, the vessel from the Department of Computer Science & Engineering of the University of Ioannina, and the vessel of the team from the Underwater Systems and Technology Laboratory of the University of Porto (Portugal).

Ro-boat race in Syros, Greece

Stay tuned for CREXDATA’s new activities!