Project Executive Summary

Marine ecosystems of Galapagos Archipelagos are subject to a plethora of direct human

threats, such as overexploitation, pollution, invasive species and climate change compromising
eco-systems functioning and ability to provide goods. Nowadays, traditional methods are still
used to obtain monitoring information are invasive, costly, time consuming and their
application in difficult access areas is problematic.

It is the aim of this proposal to establish a multidisciplinary research network to lay the
groundwork for developing quality marine ecosystem monitoring providing continuous data
for supporting priority management and policy decisions of the stakeholders such as
Galapagos National Park.
Project Description

This synergistic research aims to establish a multidisciplinary network for autonomous

monitoring of marine ecosystems in Galapagos Islands that allows continuous and reliable data
gathering, which will enable the implementation of governmental control policies. A
heterogeneous autonomous monitoring system is envisioned utilizing aerial and sea surface
autonomous vehicles capable to transfer information through a multi-agents network
communication scheme propelled by suitable power systems.

For achieving this goal the system requirements should be identified, different architectures
and technologies impact need to be assessed. The most appropriate architecture and
technologies will be further analyzed for laying the groundwork for the system materialization.

The requirements will be populated by establishing appropriate knowledge transfer strategies

between the multidisciplinary team members ensuring knowledge fusion with stakeholders in
the process. In this context the marine biodiversity taxa existing in the Galapagos Islands
ecosystems will be identified, and area specific requirements will be recognized: through
legislation survey, through interviewing stakeholders (e.g. GNP and Ministry of Agriculture and
Fisheries), through meteorological and satellite data and through workshops.

For establishing the system, a concept of operations (CONOPs) document describing its
characteristics will be developed. Following the sub-systems of the heterogeneous system will
be defined down-selecting appropriate technological solutions. The relevant partners will
design the sub-systems and suitable information fusion system will be identified. Novel
propulsion systems for unnamed vehicles (both aerial and surface) for reducing the
environmental footprint will assessed taking into consideration performance, whole life cycle
and failure cases.

For identifying the effect of local conditions on UAVs operability and performance, in-situ tests
of a typical COTS UAV will be performed. Following a roadmap of stages for materializing the
monitoring framework will be produced.

EPN (Ecuador), Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNP) organized a workshop in Galapagos
in order to identify areas of collaboration and establishing a partnership towards supporting
the protection of the Galapagos Islands.