Brazil purchases underwater robot developed by INESC Porto

Brazil purchases underwater robot developed by INESC Porto

A consortium of Brazilian companies, through the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (Brazil), signed a three-year contract with INESC Porto for the development of an autonomous underwater robot capable of monitoring dam structures and silting in the basins with high precision. The underwater robot will automatically collect information, thus making it possible to anticipate the detection of anomalies and to analyze the level of risk in dams with more precision and lower costs comparatively to the traditional processes.

02nd November 2010

The 1.6 million Euro system to be developed will make it possible not only to collect data on the quality of water and the morphology of the hydrographic basin, but also visual information, with precision in the order of centimeters, and to perform real-time monitoring. Practically, the arrival of this technology means that these monitoring tasks will be performed more frequently and with lower costs, thus making it possible to anticipate anomalies and to avoid ecological accidents. This way, the integrity of dams is guaranteed for a longer period of time and water resources are used more properly.

A team from ISEP (the engineering school of the Politechnic Institute of Porto, one of the associates of INESC Porto) has been invited to cooperate with INESC Porto in this project.

INESC Porto is a member in Portugal of the cluster OCEANO XXI, and this contract is the result of its efforts in the development of innovative systems with a high economic impact in activities in the water domain, including the sea economy.

BIP, October 2010