MRes Studentship: An Established Technology with a Novel Application – Fish Tracking with an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Automated Underwater Vehicles (AUV’s) are now being routinely used to collect a range of data within the marine environment. In order to address knowledge gaps in fish movement ecology, Tidal Lagoon Power and Bangor University are exploring the use of AUV’s in gathering data on the fine scale movements of migratory and coastal marine fish species.

This 1 year KESS 2 MRes studentship will focus on the development and integration of the acoustic and navigation system of the AUV, and will be based in the College of Physical and Applied Sciences at Bangor University, working within a multi-disciplinary team of electronic engineers, computer scientists and fish biologists together with the commercial partner, Tidal Lagoon Power.

The KESS 2 student will work to produce the following:

1. Agent-based software models for simulating the behaviour of coastal water fish species and for simulating the operation of the AUV for tracking tagged fish.
2. Software for the operation of the AUV. This will involve the development of algorithms needed to direct the AUV and maintain it at a set distance as it follows the target individual. The software will use the MOOS-IvP software package developed at MIT which is a set of open source C++ modules for providing autonomy on robotic platforms, in particular autonomous marine vehicles.
3. Experimental results from field trials for testing the operation of the AUV.
4. The integration of the software developed in point 2 with the hardware platform upon which the system is to be built. This will involve specifying, assembling and testing the AUV itself, the additional sensors required for acoustic tracking, and building the electronic interface between the acoustic tracking equipment and the AUV platform.

This is a fully funded 1 year, full time MRes studentship which will cover tuition fees with around £3k budget for equipment, travel and training opportunities.

This studentship is an exciting opportunity to work at the cutting edge of autonomous systems and work within a multi-disciplinary team developing technology that will be used to answer questions that have been bugging ecologists for years.

Eligibility of Student:

To be eligible to hold a KESS studentship, you must:

• Have a home address in the Convergence area (details below)* at the time of registration.
• Have the right to take up paid work in the Convergence area* on completion of the scholarship.
• Be classified by the University as ‘home’ or ‘EU’ for tuition fees purposes according to the University’s guidelines.
• Satisfy Bangor University’s admissions criteria: see below, qualifications and experience and application process

Qualifications and experience:

• A undergraduate degree in Computer Science or related discipline with at least a 2:1 qualification or equivalent

Application Process:

To apply, please download the Participant Application Form and send to:

For any queries on eligibility, please contact: KESS Team at Bangor University’s Doctoral School 01248 382162, KESS2@bangor.ac.uk

Closing date for applications: midnight 1st August 2017– interviews end of August 2017.

Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships (KESS) is a pan-Wales higher level skills initiative led by Bangor University on behalf of the HE sector in Wales. It is part funded by the Welsh Government’s European Social Fund (ESF) convergence programme for West Wales and the Valleys.

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