What is African Energy Week?

African Energy Week 2022 is the African Economic Conference’s annual conference, exhibition and networking event, surrounding the energy sector.

In 2022 it will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa between October 18th and 21st. AEW 2022 unites energy stakeholders with investors and international partners to drive industry growth and development and promote Africa as the destination for energy investments.

Key organizations such as the African Petroleum Producers Organization, as well as energy heavyweights including Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria, have partnered with AEW, strengthening the role the event will play in Africa’s energy future.

It will feature panel discussions, ministerial forums and various summits to discuss the role of digitalization across the oil and gas sector. AEW 2022 represents an ideal platform to discuss, negotiate and sign energy projects and technology partnerships and deployment deals.

Energy needs across the continent

While Africa faces the impacts of climate change, the rate of energy poverty across the continent has actually increased by 25 million people in 2022 compared to pre-COVID-19 levels.

This increase, coupled with the continent’s growing population, has emphasized the role hydrocarbons will play in alleviating energy poverty and driving socioeconomic growth.

To ensure the development of the continent’s hydrocarbon resources align with global climate policies, the adoption of technologies such as carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) within the hydrocarbons sector could be a game changer.Through CCUS, Africa has the opportunity to attract the investments needed to enhance oil and gas production and exploitation while ensuring development is achieved in a sustainable manner.

With investments of up to $25 billion now required across the continent’s entire energy sector per annum to achieve universal energy access by 2030, CCUS application across the oil and gas industry will be critical for securing capital and prioritizing environmental sustainability.

Such technologies will be instrumental in ensuring the continent’s 125.3 billion barrels of crude oil and 620 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves are both exploited and maximized to meet domestic energy needs, particularly across heavy industries and power generation while also creating jobs across the energy sector and various industries.

Trade outside the continent

With Europe increasingly looking to Africa to meet its energy demands, CCUS application across the oil and gas sector will help improve the continent’s gas monetization and revenues for governments.

CCUS momentum has gradually increased in Africa owing to strengthened policy support, net zero commitments, digitalization across the energy sector and the emergence of strategic business partnerships.

Up until now, adoption has been limited to a few countries including South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria. In this regard, more needs to be done from a regulatory perspective to accelerate adoption across the entire continent.The African Energy Chamber (AEC), as the voice of the energy sector, is calling for improved collaboration between academia and private and public sector institutions to accelerate research, development and technology adoption in African hydrocarbon producing countries.

The AEC is strongly advocating for African governments to introduce financial incentives and policies that encourage CCUS adoption for oil and gas optimization and decarbonization.With the current development of large-scale gas projects it is critical to integrate CCUS technology to optimise production and environmental impact.

A vision for the future

“With the demand for gas expanding across the globe and Africa’s gas rush intensifying, the focus for Africa should be the implementation of CCUS and various cost-effective technologies which pave way for optimal exploitation of our domestic energy resources to improve energy access and fuel industrialization whi...

Flare Network genesis 14.07.22

Network live and ready for builders

Developer adoption program coming in August

LOCATION / DATE / Genesis has occurred for Flare Network, the blockchain built for universal connectivity with other blockchains and real world data sources.

Flare is a powerful new blockchain with the first new consensus protocol for external data. Decentralized applications on Flare can safely and trustlessly acquire and use information from other blockchains and real world data sources, solving the oracle problem and opening the door to a new era of utility, specifically: decentralized and insured multilateral bridging, cross chain relay and insured cross chain relay, Web2 to Web3 composability and a secure fully interoperable multichain solution.

The network has entered a minimum 8 week observation period to reach sufficient decentralization ahead of the public token distribution event (TDE). At genesis the Flare Foundation controlled 100% of the validation power. During Observation Mode, the addition of validators independent of Flare will reduce the Flare Foundation’s validator power to below 33%. This is below the threshold for the foundation to control the network in any way, bringing Flare to a decentralized state of operation.

Flare is live and ready for builders, with a significant developer adoption program launching in August. This program has been designed to facilitate the development of interoperable dapps on Flare that build upon Flare’s groundbreaking new technology: the State Connector and Flare Time Series Oracle. Engineers and builders can submit their dApp proposals here.

Hugo Philion, Flare CEO & Co-founder, commented: “The last year has been characterized by a stream of CeFi and bridge failures. At the same time DeFi and decentralized approaches have shown continued robustness. The key conclusion to draw here is that the industry needs decentralized and secure solutions instead of centralized quick fixes. This can only come from genuine technical innovation. Flare is focused on delivering decentralized and secure solutions that provide the user protection against the risk of loss. Protecting the user to the greatest extent possible is what will drive the next wave of adoption in the digital asset ecosystem. I’m excited to welcome projects to the network and see the creative ways builders will harness Flare’s cross-chain composability and Web2 data in their dapps. I encourage anyone about to start a new Web3 project to take a look at Flare’s technology.

The chain has been designed to reward positive participation by all actors, from token holders, to data providers and validators, with initial incentive pools deployed to accelerate development.”

Buglife, the only organisation in Europe devoted to the conservation of all invertebrates, has strongly welcomed the momentous step by the EU to effectively ban the import into the EU of crops grown with two widely used neonicotinoid insecticides.

New EU Law To Help Save Global Pollinators

What might appear to be an innocuous adjustment the EU has set the Minimum Residue Levels of Clothianidin and Thiamethoxam for imported food to zero, a great step in protecting vulnerable pollinators and ensuring the preservation of Europe’s biodiversity. Pesticides and herbicides often have far reaching consequences for invertebrates beyond just simple target species.

How will this affect insects worldwide?

However, this step is being described as a ‘hand grenade’ and a potential revolution for the impacts of global trade on biodiversity. By setting the residue levels to zero the EU is effectively banning the use of these two insecticides, described as dangerous to the environment and insect life, by anyone wanting to export crops to the EU.

In a communication to the World Trade Organisation, EU spokespeople justified their bold action saying: “Given the global nature of pollinator decline, there is a need to ensure that also commodities imported into the European Union do not contain residues resulting from good agricultural practices based on outdoor uses of clothianidin and/or thiamethoxam, in order to avoid the transfer of adverse effects on bees from food production in the European Union to production of food in other parts of the world.”

This is the first time that the global biodiversity crisis has been used to justify general trade restrictions. If it is allowed to stand it will set a new precedent and could open the door for countries to take sweeping actions to ensure that their trade does not result in the exportation of environmental harm to other parts of the planet.

The measure could be further justified as populations of key pollinators, including hoverflies and moths are migratory; covering huge distances and crossing many world borders. The use of neonicotinoids in North Africa or Ukraine will reduce insect numbers in the EU.

A victory for insects everywhere

Buglife first raised concerns that neonicotinoid insecticides were likely to be damaging to bumblebees and mayflies in 2009. The European Commission eventually banned these two insecticides in 2018 after the UK changed position and voted in favour of the ban. However, they are still used in many non-EU countries and the UK is currently using Thiamethoxam on sugar beet.

In January 2020 Buglife, representing 29 European eNGOs, wrote to the Vice President of the EC Frans Timmermans asking for greening of trade to better protect pollinator populations and in a meeting in March 2020 with Timmermans cabinet members, Buglife CEO Matt Shardlow asked for a halt to the importation of crops grown with the banned neonics to prevent the EU simply exporting biodiversity damage overseas.

Buglife’s first large scale pesticide campaign led to the global withdrawal of cypermethrin based sheep dips. In recent years Buglife has campaigned against systemic neonicotinoid insecticides where the balance of evidence is clear that these chemicals should be fully withdrawn.

Support for the measure has grown and in recent weeks the European Habitats Forum, whose members include Buglife, WWF, Birdlife, EEB, Butterfly Conservation Europe and Friends of the Earth Europe, wrote to the EC requesting the end of the importation of all crops produced using bee and pollinator harming pesticides.

Matt Shardlow, Buglife CEO commented: “This action is a brave and potentially revolutionary step. Current international trade protocols are inadequate for addressing 21st challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss, but this measure could change the game and put the protection of global biodiversity on every trade negotiation agenda.”

Buglife is hopeful that the current action being proposed by the E...

Guest Article by John Griffin, Co-founder and CRO at M3ter, a metering and pricing engine for SaaS companies.

One of the biggest headwinds faced by SaaS businesses in 2022 is the slowdown of ‘easy’ customer acquisition that had been driven by Covid-19.

The pandemic only accelerated the long-term trend towards the cloud and SaaS. Specific challenges such as business resilience and remote working acted as a catalyst for more general reappraisal of value and flexibility, and an associated enthusiasm for digital transformation. The result was that businesses took on a whole host of new tools and platforms, leading to a surge of new customers for SaaS businesses, and an industry boom.

But now, the hangover. After a period of enthusiasm, businesses are taking stock and streamlining their tech stack. This is further encouraged by an uncertain economic outlook, with a risk of recession, declining stock market valuations (in some sectors), and uncertainties around fundraising all contributing to the international belt-tightening.

In this environment, SaaS businesses are turning their attention to new strategies to sustain growth. One of these is pricing and, in particular, deploying usage-based pricing (UBP) combined with Product-led Growth (PLG). Using these strategies, the barriers to customer acquisition are lowered because initial commitments are limited and users can test out products more easily.

Therefore, revenue expansion requires fewer sales effort and logo churn is lower because costs are directly associated with usage, which both implies value and provides an easy release valve (simply use less rather than give up the service entirely).

But whether this strategy is right for your company will depend on the data.

Start with the data

Businesses can analyse their usage and billing data to work out where and how customers derive value from their product – such as how and when they use it, and the circumstances in which they stop using it. This kind of insight enables a company to focus their product development on what matters most, and design new pricing strategies that better align usage and value.

But where to look first? With so many streams of data, and product and finance teams finding themselves increasingly stretched, sifting through usage and billing data can be a daunting and time-consuming undertaking.

Be organised and keep a good record

In 2020, the average person generated 1.7 megabytes of data per second online, adding up to a total of 2.5 million terabytes created each day. Companies are no different and now find themselves dealing with huge quantities of data, some of which is completely unstructured.

Good data infrastructure should be the starting point for any business wishing to understand and harness the power of their information streams. Since smart product development and flexible pricing rely on data, getting this right is crucial.

Whatever your situation, it makes sense to start with an audit, mapping out your data pipelines at the enterprise level. The aim is to build a clear understanding of where your data is coming from, where it is going, and why. Is it being stored in one place, or are you starting to see silos pop up across the business where data is duplicated and potentially divergent?

With a robust map of data flows, you can better understand where there are inefficiencies in how you collect and store data. You’ll also know just what a goldmine of information you’re sitting on, and that probably isn’t yet being harnessed to its full potential.

Make sure your data is clean

Once you have a reliable understanding of the way data is flowing through your organisation, you need to make sure it’s consistent, accurate and useful.

Unsurprisingly, given the sheer quantity of incoming streams, data hygiene is a common issue for modern tech businesses. According to a recent IBM report, 83% of companies suffer from serious data inconsistencies. The impact of this can be significant and cost businesses a...

A very topical book, looking at how technology is impacting on all of us, and the differing impacts, depending on whether we are Gen X, Y, Z or millennials. Born Digital: The Story of a Distracted Generation by Bob Wigley, see more about the book on his website here.

Born Digital: What impact does tech & social media have on Gen Z – and how can we protect society from it? reviewed

Firstly we enjoyed this thought provoking book. It definitely tried to crack the differences between how technology has impacted on us all differently, depending on our ages and perspectives. The author aimed to get insights by talking to as many people as possible who were thirty plus years younger. This helped to a large degree, though, as Wigley acknowledges too, this was also slightly unscientific as it was limited to those who he was able to speak to, who were over represented by young white males.

At the same time there are some very good chapters in this book which aim to tackle Gen Z and Gen Y views on sex, sexuality, and the potentially negative impact of dating apps and hookup culture. The author is aware of his biases to some degree and examines the issues in thought provoking and insightful ways.

As the recent revelations from the Uber leaks have demonstrated, technology companies are not benign and do not have our best interests at heart. At the same time we have rushed deeply into using their products, with no handrails and effective guidance about what might be best for our mental health.

This book does not have all of the answers but it makes a healthy stab at aiming to name and identify what the issues are, and to try and work out a better path forwards for us all. His conversations with his own teenager to early twenties children are also well captured and demonstrate that the issues and solutions are more nuanced than mere soundbites. As one of his sons cautions him too, if there are going to be family rules around social media usage, then ALL of the family need to adhere to them. An enjoyable and thought provoking read. Well worth reading.

More about the book

69% of young Brits say their generation will be less happy and have worse mental health than previous generations – Born Digital unpicks the impact tech has on Gen Z brains Tech makes us less focussed and empathetic and more lonely, depressed and stressed – to avoid a global crisis we need to radically reset society’s relationship with technology UK’s world-leading Online Safety Bill is currently going through Parliament – Wigley argues we need globally coordinated governance of the internet and better tech regulation Written by Professor Bob Wigley – Chairman of UK Finance, he helped steer the Bank of England through the global financial crisis, sits on the UK’s Economic Crime Strategic Board (co-chaired by the Home Secretary & Chancellor) and is former Chairman of EMEA Merrill Lynch

Gen Z now spend more time on screens than sleeping – clocking up an average of 7 hours online a day. So what impact is this having on young people’s brains – and what does it mean for the future of society, education, business, politics and our health?

Robert Wigley witnessed the world sleepwalk into the dot.com crash, global financial crisis and the climate crisis and worked closely with governments and institutions to help tackle the fall-out. Based on decades of institutional experience, his first book, Born Digital, offers governments, industry, educators and parents a roadmap to reset society’s relationship with tech.

The book distils the latest research from scientists around the world on the impact tech is having on our brains and the risks it poses to society – from fake news to a lack of empathy, increased suicide rates to threats to democracy.

To wrestle back control of our attention, Wigley argues we need globally coordinated governance of the internet and better regulation. Anti-trust laws have failed to prevent big techs from gaining powerful and in some cases dominant market sha...

Cork-based Talivest has announced its acquisition by Go1, one of the world’s largest corporate education content hubs for on-demand training and resources.

The partnership represents a strategic alignment of a shared purpose by both organisations, to continually provide data and insights that enhance engagement in corporate learning & development.

Headquartered in Cork, Talivest is an employee experience platform co-founded by HR professionals Jayne Ronayne and Laura Belyea, with a mission to leverage technology and transform how people and organisations engage throughout the employee lifecycle.

The acquisition will see Talivest’s co-founders and team integrate as part of the Go1 global organisation, signifying the success of the Irish start-up they built together. Ronayne and Belyea will be joining the Go1 team to continue to support company growth and oversee the day-to-day operations for Talivest.

On the acquisition, co-founder Jayne said, “It has been an incredible journey to scale up Talivest from post-college to parenthood. I feel so grateful to the Talivest team for years of dedication to building this business. I have always admired and enjoyed working with the team at Go1, and I look forward to continuing my own journey as part of their team.”

Co-founder Laura added, “Both Jayne and I really feel that Go1 is the right home for Talivest, and also the right time in the market, as demand for employee engagement and education tech soars. With the acquisition, I am excited for experience and domain our product and engineering expertise to join Go1 and help them to achieve their global vision.”

Andrew Barnes, CEO of Go1 said, “We’ve always known the importance of learning and development for employee retention. In the past few years, that importance has grown as the workforce adapts to new models and the need to accommodate shifting priorities. The combination of Talivest’s employee experience knowledge with Go1’s expertise in corporate learning will help millions of learners across the world to feel more empowered and engaged with their jobs every day.”

See more stories here.

More about Irish Tech News

Irish Tech News are Ireland’s No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland’s No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here:

If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at [email protected] now to discuss.

Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at [email protected] now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience.

You can also find and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

The Global Solar Forecast 2050 is to date the most progressive solar power report ever produced. The 38-page report forecasts all solar technologies and installations up to 2050, and predicts the switch towards carbon-neutral solar power, say researchers at Rethink Energy, a UK-based solar research and development firm.

All this is detailed in the brand new report, which includes a country-by-country breakdown of where this energy will go.

The report shows that solar is on a roll. Today, we argue whether or not it will hit 200 GW of global installations in 2022. Solar power is growing so fast that it is bound to have growing pains.

By 2038, the report predicts it will hit five times that annual installation number, because governments, utilities and renewables firms will realise that not only is it already the cheapest way to generate electricity, and will get increasingly cheaper, but the emergence of battery energy storage makes solar a more predictable resource.

Solar Powering the Future

The solar report introduces the concept of “rooftop capacity per capita” and forecasts that countries such as Poland, Italy, China, the USA, Vietnam and even the Netherlands, will begin to chase the leader Australia in the number of rooftop solar installed per million inhabitants.Solar may also be at the centre of the “green hydrogen” sector which could build momentum through to 2030 and then absorb a staggering amount of cheap electricity into the electrolysis process.

This will mostly be from cheap solar megaprojects in Australia, North Africa, the Middle East, and throughout China and the Americas, including irradiation hotspots like Chile. The scale of the growth in annual additions could be staggering, progressing a huge 14.35% each year (Compound Annual Growth Rate) through to 2030, before falling back to the more prosaic 9.7% CAGR through to 2040. The associated “growing pains” will be considerable, with problems finding and funding sufficient polysilicon, alongside heavy international competition in the solar market. New forms of solar will also emerge. All of that can happen in the next 30 years, but also new superpowers in solar irradiation will erupt onto the scene, and places like Chile and Australia may build giant energy export businesses based on the power of both solar and wind.

Disruption in energy markets caused by the slowing natural gas markets means that consumers everywhere may be clamouring to put solar panels anywhere that makes commercial sense.

Look for a massive expansion in this as government pressure to make policy changes may see consumers rewarded for rooftop self-supply, smoothed by battery energy storage.

Rooftop solar power at its peak is projected to represent 59% of annual additions to capacity by 2050. Global annual solar additions could hit 617 GW in 2030, and peak at 1022 GW in 2040, before sliding back to a mostly replacement business in the run-up to 2050.

Repowering the World

The report also introduces a formula for calculating when solar repowering will happen, so gives a real insight into the relationship between module manufacture and annual additions. “Today as we write this report, we understand that solar is actually rising in price day to day”, said Rethink Energy analyst Andries Wantenaar, lead author of Global Solar Forecast 2050: Country breakdowns of 22.9 TW of solar by 2050.

“But this is only due to the cramped supply of polysilicon, and this crisis will remain part of the pricing equation for some time to come, at least 4 or 5 years until polysilicon settles to being simply part of the supply chain once again”, he continued. This report describes this process in detail, one country at a time, taking in the top 33 regions for solar output, whether that is now or at any stage during the next 30 years.

More about Irish Tech News

Irish Tech News are Ireland’s No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland’s No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and ...

DataSolutions, the specialist distributor of innovative IT and security solutions, has announced a partnership with Cato Networks, provider of the world’s first Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platform.

This partnership will help to drive multi-million business growth for Cato Networks in Ireland over the next few years, building further on its seven-figure revenues within the Irish market. As well as the partnership with DataSolutions, Cato Networks has invested significantly in its Dublin presence, having opened a Point of Presence (PoP) that extends the Cato SASE Cloud Backbone. This will provide both regional and global companies with enhanced performance, cybersecurity posture and resiliency.

The company is also adding to the local team to achieve its goals. Recently, the SASE provider appointed industry veteran Anthony Walsh as Country Manager of Ireland and expanded its local technical team. It is currently in the process of hiring additional staff across various support functions.

In terms of the services which will be driving business growth, the Cato SASE Cloud offering will be key. It is a converged, worldwide cloud-native service that securely and optimally connects all branches, data centres, people and cloud environments for businesses. It can be gradually deployed for organisations to replace or augment legacy network services and security point solutions.

Cato Networks is already experiencing demand for this solution across all industries and verticals – including regional and global companies with multiple offices, numerous branch locations and large remote workforces.

With the support of DataSolutions and its in-depth knowledge of the Irish market, Cato Networks is also looking to recruit partners with expertise in networking and security, and which typically serve the enterprise space.

Together, these industry leaders will not only allow partners to benefit from the reoccurring revenue model of SaaS and create new revenue streams, but also accelerate their time to market with a full SASE offering, lower operational costs and serve global enterprises.

Speaking about the partnership, Michael O’Hara, Group Managing Director of DataSolutions, said: “Given the ever-evolving threat landscape and our new hybrid working world, the breadth of cover that Cato SASE Cloud delivers across all users, applications, devices and locations is ever more crucial – and in high demand. We look forward to working with them to provide cutting-edge solutions and deliver services which power success and deliver real results.

“It’s a perfect fit really, in terms of our portfolios and company values. As well as acting as an extension of Cato Networks’ sales and technical capabilities, we will be assisting them in adding to their partner network, starting with a launch event on 13th July. By joining forces, we hope to do great things in Ireland.”

Anthony Walsh, Country manager for Ireland, Cato Networks, added: “We are uniquely positioned to enable the digital transformation of companies’ network and security infrastructure through the simplification, automation and consolidation of legacy point solutions into a cloud-native service. And we pride ourselves on not simply deploying products but delivering these as part of an integrated Cloud native SaaS service.

“To do that effectively, we need the right people in the organisation and expert partners like DataSolutions which upholds exceptional service levels. They will allow us to continue this rapid growth phase and capitalise on the wealth of opportunities within the Irish market – and further afield.”

See more stories here.

More about Irish Tech News

Irish Tech News are Ireland’s No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland’s No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here:

If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at [email protected] now to discuss.

...

ITN’s Henry Fox interviews Tablet EX Gear president Brian Saunders about his business, what inspired him to begin, and the foundations of his business. We go into the range of uses for tablet computers in the modern workplace, from event management to forestry, and learn what the future holds for this innovative company.

Designing robust tablets for forests, events and outdoors rough and tumble, Brian Saunders, Tablet EX Gear

Bios:

Brian Saunders is the president and founder of Tablet EX Gear, using his close to 30 years of experience in forestry on Canada’s west coast and the emerging to design his first prototype in 2012, alongside his friend Lorraine, for his company’s chest rigs, which hold and work as a standing desk for the then-emerging technology of tablet computers. Since then his business has expanded, and these products can be found across the world – between Brazil and Bangladesh.

Henry Fox is a freelance journalist and student at Coventry University in the UK, currently interning at Irish Tech News. Originally hailing from Limerick, Henry has a passion for all things nerdy, from emerging computer technology to cult movies.

See more podcasts here.

More about Irish Tech News

Irish Tech News are Ireland’s No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland’s No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here:

If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at [email protected] now to discuss.

Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at [email protected] now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience.

You can also find and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

In the last few years, as a result of humanitarian crises around the world, thousands of refugees have fled across the seas, often on rickety dinghies and rafts. A team from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden is currently developing a fully autonomous drone system that can increase the speed and efficiency of response in rescue operations at sea.

In the context of refugee crises and migratory flows, the sea has been a recurrent and risky route. Travelling on fragile or overloaded vessels has led to people losing their lives at sea. In the project ‘Quadcopter, fixed-wing and marine drones for search and rescue’, a team at Chalmers is developing a new kind of fully automated system for search and rescue operations.

The system relies on both water and air-craft working together, using a communication system to independently search an area, alert authorities to people in distress and provide basic assistance before crewed rescue vehicles have arrived.

Drone systems working together have the potential to save more lives

The drone system consists of three separate components working together: a marine catamaran drone called Seacat, which serves as a base for the other drones, a fleet of winged aerial drones that monitor the surrounding area, and a quadcopter that can approach people in distress and deliver items such as supplies, healthcare aids or flotation devices. The quadcopter – a drone that has four engines and therefore the ability to hover – can carry loads weighing up to about two kilograms.

‘The project is based on the simple principle that different drones have different advantages, and by allowing several different types of autonomous drones to work together, search efficiency and rescue response speed can be significantly improved, with the potential to save more lives”, said Xin Zhao, post-doc in the Fluid Mechanics Division at Chalmers.

Tomas Grönstedt, Professor in the Fluid Dynamics Division, said: “In addition, the system could – in principle – be linked to any public service or to volunteers who could provide some form of assistance.”

The system has been developed in collaboration between the Vehicle Mechanics and Autonomous Systems Division and the Fluid Dynamics Division of the Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences.

The marine and winged drones are designed from scratch, built and tested at Chalmers.

The team includes Tomas Grönstedt, Xin Zhao, Isak Jonsson and Carlos Xisto from the Fluid Dynamics Division, Ola Benderius from the Vehicle Mechanics and Autonomous Systems Division of the Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences, Leif Eriksson from the Earth Sciences and Remote Sensing Division of the Department of Space, Earth and Environment and Christian Berger from the Software Engineering Division of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

The next stage

The marine drone, Seacat, provides an internet uplink as well as a local communication link that is used to coordinate the flying drones. It also includes a launch pad for the fixed-wing drones. All airborne drones are equipped with cameras and a positioning system. All drones can move fully autonomously – the marine drone follows a predefined route with a closed-loop.

Fixed-wing craft are automatically assigned to search areas according to an intelligent algorithm that makes the best use of the number of drones available. When a fixed-wing drone detects objects in the water, the quadcopter is sent to the scene to take pictures.

The photographs can then be sent to a rescue centre on land via the marine drone. The rescue centre, for its part, can send out the quadcopter with supplies. When one of the winged drones runs out of battery, it is taken out of service and lands in the water near the Seacat, where it can be picked up and recharged automatically, and then sent out again.

“So far, we have succeeded in carrying out a quadcopter landing on Seacat, and the winged drones have been built and are in the process of being ass...