DTU Professor Christian Pedersen is leading the Ocean Eye project, where he, in collaboration with Aarhus University, will develop new sensor technologies.
By developing state-of-the-art optical technologies, researchers will document marine biodiversity in far greater detail than divers and satellite imagery do today. It will all be put on an autonomous vessel that can sail around and collect data on its own.
"There is a limit to how long a diver can be down and it's difficult to cover a large area. But with our method, we expect to be able to say quite accurately, for example, that 75% of the seabed in that area is covered by eelgrass and 12% by red algae," says Christian Pedersen.