Pathways to Innovation

APICS—the Automated, in situ Plankton Imaging and Classification System—represents a transformative step in autonomous ocean observing. Used in long-term, autonomous deployments within the Western Channel Observatory, APICS delivers high‑frequency, in situ plankton imagery and automated classification. This capability supports improved detection of ecological change, strengthens climate‑relevant biodiversity monitoring, and reduces reliance on ship‑based sampling, contributing directly to net‑zero oceanography. The platform offers a valuable environment for testing and validating innovative technologies (e.g. sensors), accelerating the development of next‑generation marine monitoring tools.

The Plymouth Quest is able to operate in coastal and offshore regions and is able to spend up to 5 days at sea. It is equipped with facilities for collecting a wide range of biological, chemical and physical measurements and boasts a suite of underway sensors for autonomous measurements.

• Length: 21.5m, draught: 3.02m
• Maritime and Coastguard Agency Category 2 workboat, able to operate up to 60 miles from a safe haven
• Capacity of 12 passengers plus crew during the day or 6 overnight berths
• Equipped with trawl and sweeping winches, an A frame, net drum, 10 tonne hydraulic crane and hydraulic stern gate
• Sea-Bird scientific rosette sampler with twelve 10L bottles and CTD instrumentation package.  Third party sensors can be integrated into this water column profiling system.
• Sophisticated underway sensing system with additional capacity for third party sensor trials.  The system is fed through a dedicated seawater intake system, which protrudes 1m below the vessels hull.
• 10,000L pristine seawater collection and holding tanks.

The E1 station is located at the far south west extent of the Smart Sound Plymouth, some 20 nautical miles south of Plymouth. The E1 buoy is permanently moored at this station in a nominal water depth of 75m. This buoy is provided through a collaboration between the Met Office and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory.  The in-water measurements include: sea surface temperature, salinity, oxygen, turbidity, fluorescence (WetLabs WQM)); CDOM fluorescence (WetLabs); nitrate (Satlantic Suna) and a PAR sensor (Satlantic). Whilst the above water met station and wave sensor is operated by the Met Office. Both systems report to shore hourly using Iridium Short Data Burst format and is digested into the Met Office forecasting models as well as hosted on the Western Channel Observatory website.

The L4 station is approximately 6 nautical miles south of Plymouth in 45m of water.

The buoy has been upgraded to a 4m diameter platform which stands over 5m above the sea surface. The buoy has been designed and built to have high power generation and plug and play capability for sensor integration. A significant upgrade is the autonomous water column profiling capability, which deploys a sensor payload through the water column at pre-determined intervals. This capability exists on only a handful of platforms in the world and certainly unique in the UK.

The Observatory forms part of the Western Channel Observatory, it takes continuous measurements of several gases in the air including concentrations of sulphur dioxide, ozone, carbon dioxide and methane, as well as aerosols, trace metals and organics. The PPAO facilitates quantification of air-sea gas transport by using state-of-the-art eddy covariance techniques; it is very suitable for long-term, high temporal resolution measurements of air-sea exchange in shelf regions. Additionally the PPAO has proven very useful in testing and comparing instruments designed to measure fluxes of carbon dioxide and methane terrestrially and assess their suitability for use in obtaining air-sea flux measurements.

The L3 Harris C-worker 4m uncrewed surface vessel is a diesel powered USV designed to complete a variety of offshore and inshore survey tasks; housed in the University of Plymouth’s Marine Station waterside campus. C-Worker 4’s waterjet propulsion system makes it an ideal solution for shallow water survey. The vehicle has the ability to integrate a range of standard survey payloads including ADCP, USBL, PAM and CTD.  The vessel is capable of conducting a variety of mission trials with both wet and dry payload bays, Underwater Retractable Mast (URM), water column profiling sensor winch and the ability to tow sensor packages.  The vessel also comes with the Robot Operating System (ROS) interface, which facilitates the trails of third party guidance/mission control software.  All missions will be designed and conducted by a professional team ensuring that all safety and authorisation procedures have been followed.  Integration of trial systems into the vessel will be facilitated by specialist software and fabrication engineers.

This custom made version of the Saab Seaeye Falcon was originally equipped to a high
specification, it includes:

• TRITECH obstacle avoidance sonar
• 4 LED lights
• SEAEYE colour video camera
• HDTV Camera mounted on skid
• Skid Mounted Five Function Hydraulic Manipulator System
• Valeport Modus CTD sensor
• Link Quest USBL system.

The RV Falcon Spirit is a flexible and state-of-the-art platform for marine research,
including:

• 13.65m aluminium catamaran survey vessel.
• coded for 14 people to work up to 60 miles from safe haven.
• beam of 6 metres; offers a large and stable 25m of flood lit configurable aft deck space.
• Internal dry laboratory space for a minimum of 6 workstations.
• separate wet laboratory facility.
• pair of 500 horse power diesel engines the vessel, capable of a 165 mile range at a 15 knot service speed, with considerable power in reserve.
• capability to troll at very slow speeds.
• 1×1 metre moon pool.
• 2x independent 600kg hydraulic capstans.
• 400kg pot hauler in way of a double door in the starboard bulwark.
• Power is via an independent generator producing 12.3 kVa of clean power to a
• multitude of 240V sockets, a 1.6kw inverter and a 4kw UPS.

The National Coastwatch station on the Rame Head peninsula acts as an ideal platform for offshore communications and meteorological observations. The communication system provides the gateway for the real time transmission of numerous sensor platforms across the Smart Sound.

The Marine Station is a landmark £4.65 million development which serves as the base for marine expeditionary work. Located on the shores of Plymouth Sound as part of University of Plymouth’s ‘Waterfront Campus’, the facility features:

• Expeditionary base of operations
• Water access from pontoons, lifts & slips
• Equipment storage
• Lecture facilities overlooking the sea
• A wet lab for sample examination and analysis
• A seawater aquarium
• Diver changing facilities