On 13 March 2025, we will embark on a 14-day research cruise from Kiel to Kiel. This is the first of three granted cruises within the German funded cruise proposal COMMS (CONMAR | MUNI-RSIK | MMinE-SWEEPER) submitted by GEOMAR in Kiel. The cruise will support different aspects of the three projects. For MMinE-SwEEPER, the main objectives are technical tests and trials and data collection for AI-based object detection and water analyses for a more conclusive data set on explosive chemicals in the western Baltic Sea (Figure 1).
German partners from WTD71, GEOMAR and the Federal Police will participate in the cruise, joined by the Polish partner IOPAN and the Spanish partner IQUA-Robotics, who will embark in the Bay of Lübeck. The cruise will first deploy different types of mapping technologies at the conventional munition dumpsite Falshöft to cross-validate previously acquired data with AUV-based multibeam (MBES), sidescan sonar (SSS) and low frequency synthetic aperture sonar (SAS). In addition, ship-based SAS and MBES will be conducted to provide a comprehensive data set for later cross-validation of object detection accuracy and change detection against existing data. This dataset will also be used later to test different AI-based methods for object detection, classification and, if possible, identification (partners from Belgium, Germany and Norway will work on this as part of WP5). Technologies for secure data sharing and cloud-based computing, set up by our partner north.io, will be tested with this first data set. In the Gulf of Lübeck, various intelligent AUV tasks will be tested, including real-time data processing and adaptive mission execution for magnetic, sidescan and optical data. This will hopefully move existing approaches beyond the testing phase towards proper application.
In addition to technical mapping and robotic studies, the cruise will sample water along the transit route and within the work areas for analysis of explosive chemicals released by munitions. Detailed ROV-based water sampling close to detected munitions (Figure 3) will allow assessment of the existing risk of contamination to the environment. New onboard analytical techniques will be applied directly onboard the vessel using the lab-in-a-box Xplotector. This system will be further developed during the project to also detect chemical warfare agents (CWA). The Xplotector system is capable of providing analyses within 20 minutes of sampling. It is currently being further developed with an autosampler to be able to process larger numbers of sample sets overnight. After the first cruise in March, the project will have a second cruise in October 2025. This cruise will take us further east into Polish waters to investigate the CWA dumping area east of Bornholm. We are looking forward to both cruises, good data for the MMinE-SWEEPER project and a successful cooperation with CONMAR and MUNI-RISK.
