5G ENABLED AQUACULTURE MONITORING SYSTEM

EU R&D consortium 5G-HEART (5G HEalth AquacultuRe and Transport validation trials, www.5gheart.org ) develops and executes large scale healthcare, aquaculture and transport trial activities on actual testbed in EU. The use case for the aquaculture vertical will comprise of two pilot sites, showcasing the applicability of the solution developed in different locations. The first site in Greece will utilize the 5G-EVE node and the second pilot in Norway will use the Norwegian node of 5G-VINNI to access the network. The European Commission is focusing on the development and application of new and emerging technologies to aid the sustainable development of European aquaculture through the introduction of ‘smart farming’. Sharing farm data and integrating Big Data, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning into husbandry practices will contribute to standardisation and the possibility to benchmark the best production conditions. This will lead to better growth predictability and feeding regimes, more precise welfare and health monitoring, autonomous operations and improved safety conditions for aquaculture workers. Monitoring of the fish stocks, environment and the farm infrastructure are key areas for maintaining optimal production and minimizing environmental impacts of aquaculture. Significant advances have been made in recent years through the development of technologies for autonomous data acquisition and communication in the areas of monitoring fish behaviour and feeding within the net pens on marine farms, monitoring water quality parameters to determine environmental impacts and the integrity of the farm structures to minimize the potential of fish escaping. These technologies need to be supported by an appropriate communication and data processing infrastructure, capable of supporting offshore systems. 5G connectivity offers the opportunity to connect a wide range of sensors directly with applications, enable real-time video monitoring with negligible latency and supports remote monitoring, thus providing a ubiquitous communication infrastructure solution for aquaculture.

In this presentation, 5G enabled aquaculture vertical trials performed by EU R&D consortium 5G-HEART are introduced.