AEIGLIDERS: Integration of Spectrophotometric pH Sensors in Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles (Gliders)

The project consists of adapting the SP200 family of spectrophotometric pH sensors so that they can be installed and operated in unmanned autonomous vehicles, both surface and underwater. The spectrophotometric pH sensors developed by Sensorlab SL are highly accurate devices, designed to measure pH in open water for periods of several months without the need for calibration or maintenance, their main use being the monitoring of the evolution of climate change.

The solution is to integrate pH sensors into unmanned autonomous vehicles, as these allow measurement campaigns to be carried out much more frequently and at a much lower cost than traditional oceanographic campaigns.

The project has two main objectives:

• Adapting the technical characteristics of sensors to be used in autonomous vehicles.
• To reduce the cost of the sensors, which allows to be more competitive in the market, as well as to be able to enter other applications.

The new range of sensors will open up new business opportunities, on the one hand because they can be used in new applications, and on the other hand because they will be made known to new customers through the manufacturers of unmanned autonomous vehicles. There are currently no pH sensors integrated in autonomous vehicles on the world market and there is interest from the scientific community.