ECA Group is engaged in Smart and Networking Underwater Robots in Cooperation Meshes (SWARMs) project in charge of 3 different work packages.

The €17.3-million project started in July 2015, involving 35 partners from 10 European countries through 3 years.

The main goal of SWARMs is to make AUVs, ROVs and USVs further accessible and useful, making autonomous maritime and offshore operations a viable option for new and existent industries.

ECA Group started to work for SWARMs from the very beginning of this project in 2015. The company is providing its AUV A9 equipped with an interferometric sidescan sonar and an embedded computer with the goal of analyzing in real time the quality of the depth soundings in order to modify mission parameters to optimize the quality of the survey.

Additionally, ECA Group is involved in algorithms for sonar image registration to improve positioning and navigation during repeated missions over the same area by one or multiple vehicles of different kinds.

During September 2016, ECA will participate to an underwater test, in the Canaries Islands, with the AUV A9, in order to approve the scientific and theoretical input of the past year.