Abstract
The oceans carry secrets about climate change, nutrition and natural resources; yet only 5% of the world’s oceans have been explored. The objective of the OMNI project is to develop a flexible-use and low-cost ocean sensing system to gather detailed and diverse data from the seas. All the technology solutions and data of the project would be open source and shared to all. This project cannot be carried out alone, it would need collaboration and meaningful links with multiple partners. A national network involving academia, government agencies, industry and individuals will be needed to work together to research, develop and deploy the OMNI system.
Several sea trials, up to 55 days in duration have been successfully completed using the developed prototype devices. More than 21,547 data units of GPS, temperature, salinity and signal strength were transmitted through an LTE or LoRaWAN network. The platform builds on three core innovations. First, an inclusive user group of everybody from school children to advanced researchers. Second, consumer electronic sensor technology to keep system cost low. Thirdly, an autonomous movement and navigation module - to be added for the next sea trials.
Prototype of the OMNI device
Sea trials of the developed OMNI devices
Collaboration
- Design-Led X Platform, IIS, University of Tokyo