For offshore windfarms or coastal foundations, pile driving technique is often used. But it generates a high level of noise, which severly damages - up to death - marine mammals, fishes and other species. Noise Mitigation Systems (NMS) exist but with limits : high price, weak acoustic efficiency, bad behavior with current, waves and depth... To fill these gaps, we develop an innovative and eco-designed NMS : the SSQ® Pile Driving. It is based on the disruptive membrane Sub Sea Quieter® (inflatable panels of 3D-woven fabric, coated and sealed to insure acoustic efficiency) resulting from 5 years of R&D. Designed like a sock deployed closest and around the pile thanks to a clever manutention system, it aims at becoming the NMS technical reference by its very high acoustic mitigation efficiency, turbidity containment, its cost up to 5 to 10 times cheaper than existing NMS, with no any extra vessel or crane and its adaptability to the most severe site conditions (waves, curent, depth...).

SafeNav’s ambition is to develop and test a highly innovative digital collision prevention solution that will significantly reduce the probability of collisions, impact damage, grounding, and contribute to safer navigation by a) faster reliable real-time detection of a variety of obstacles (other vessels, fixed installations, submerged/semi-submerged objects, and marine mammals) in the marine environment, using data from state-of-the-art sensors and other relevant sources, and b) effective visual representation of the multi-source data to the navigators for quick COLREG-based decision-making support. To this end, SafeNav unites 10 key partners from the maritime industry and academia, including renowned SMEs, R&D institutes and universities to address the ‘Navigational Accidents’ aspect of the work programme . We will design collision avoidance algorithms built on multi-sensory data input from propriety (LADARTM sensor suite) and off-the-shelf sensors already installed on vessels, extensive statistics of navigational accidents, and other sources (AIS and route exchange services) to create a holistic decision support system (DSS). Processed information from the automatic DSS will feed into SafeNav collision-avoidance algorithms and generate real-time COLREGs-compliant suggestions for the navigator when an obstacle is detected. This reduces pressure on navigators onboard, providing them with efficient decision-making aid and access to visual navigation data on a single graphical user-interface. Sensors will also be used for container tracking, and mathematical models will predict container drift trajectory, transmitting collected data to a SafeNav Navigational Hazard Database available to nearby vessels/stakeholders, facilitating the recovery of lost containers. Moreover, we propose to prevent vessel collisions with cetaceans with optimal-tuned pingers to alert them of an approaching vessels.

TRIDENT aims to contribute to a sustainable exploitation of seabed mineral resources, by developing a reliable, transparent and cost-effective system for prediction and continuous environmental impact monitoring of exploration and exploitation activities in the deep sea. This system will develop and integrate technology and novel solutions to operate autonomously in remote areas under extreme conditions, and provide real-time data to permitting and supervising authorities. The effective monitoring and inspection system to be developed will comply with international and national legal frameworks. TRIDENT will identify all relevant physical, chemical, geological and biological parameters to be measured at the sea surface, mid-water and seabed. The project will also identify gaps in existing data sets and develop solutions to address them. These are essential steps to develop statistically robust environmental baselines, establish reliable indicators of good environmental status and define thresholds for significant impact, enabling the standardization of tools and methods. The project consortium will subsequently develop and test an integrated system of static and mobile observatory platforms equipped with the latest automatic sensors and samplers to measure environmental parameters on mining and reference areas at representative spatial and temporal scales. To support quick actions for preventing serious harm to the environment, the system will implement high-capacity data handling pipelines able to collect, transmit, process and display monitoring data in near real time. Finally, we will provide technological and systemic solutions for forecasting potential environmental impacts of using the developed monitoring and mitigation methods.