Design of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles for Cage Aquafarms

Aquaculture systems need to provide artificial monitoring and control functions to maintain essential environmental factors within the high productivity ranges. This paper suggests that autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) equipped with various sensors, communication devices, and navigational intelligence can perform effective and broad-range monitoring missions of cage-based aquaculture system surroundings. After explaining the target aquaculture system, we describe functional and performance requirements of AUVs for surveillance of coastal cage aquafarms. It also describes several design options considered for this ongoing project as well as artificial immune-based intelligence features.