Abstract
This work presents a six degrees of freedom probabilistic scan matching method for registration of 3D underwater sonar scans. Unlike previous works, where local submaps are built to overcome measurement sparsity, our solution develops scan matching directly from the raw sonar data. Our method, based on the probabilistic Iterative Correspondence (pIC), takes measurement uncertainty into consideration while developing the registration procedure. A new probabilistic sensor model was developed to compute the uncertainty of each scan measurement individually. Initial displacement guesses are obtained from a probabilistic dead reckoning approach, also detailed in this document. Experiments, based on real data, demonstrate superior robustness and accuracy of our method with respect to the popular ICP algorithm. An improved trajectory is obtained by integration of scan matching updates in the localization data fusion algorithm, resulting in a substantial reduction of the original dead reckoning drift.

Abstract
A growing interest in ocean exploration for scientific and commercial research has been shown, mainly due to the technological developments for maritime and offshore industries. The use of Autonomous surface vehicles (ASV) have a promising role to revolutionize the transportation, monitorization, operation and maintenance areas, allowing to perform distinct task from offshore assets inspection to harbor patrolling. This work presents SENSE, an autonomouS vEssel for multi-domaiN inSpection and maintEnance. It provides an open-source hardware and software architecture that is easy to replicate for both research institutes and industry. This is a multi-purpose vehicle capable of acquiring multi-domain data for inspecting and reconstructing maritime infrastructures. SENSE provides a research platform which can increase the situational awareness capabilities for ASVs. SENSE full configuration provides multimodal sensory data acquired from both domains using a Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR), a stereoscopic camera, and a multibeam echosounder. In addition, it supplies navigation information obtained from a real-time kinematic satellite navigation system and inertial measurement units. Moreover, the tests performed at the harbor of Marina de Leca, at Porto, Portugal, resulted in a dataset which captures a fully operational harbor. It illustrates several conditions on maritime scenarios, such as undocking and docking examples, crossings with other vehicles and distinct types of moored vessels. The data available represents both domains of the maritime scenario, being the first public dataset acquired for multi-domain observation using a single vehicle. This paper also provides examples of applications for navigation and inspection on multi-domain scenarios, such as odometry estimation, bathymetric surveying and multi-domain mapping.

Abstract
Underwater autonomous manipulation is the capability of a mobile robot to perform intervention tasks that require physical contact with unstructured environments without continuous human supervision. Being difficult to assess the behaviour of existing motion planner algorithms, this research proposes a new planner evaluation metric to identify well-behaved planners for specialized tasks of inspection and monitoring of man-made underwater structures. This metric is named NEMU and combines three different performance indicators: effectiveness, safety and adaptability. NEMU deals with the randomization of sampling-based motion planners. Moreover, this article presents a benchmark of multiple planners applied to a 6 DoF manipulator operating underwater. Results conducted in real scenarios show that different planners are better suited for different tasks. Experiments demonstrate that the NEMU metric can be used to distinguish the performance of planners for particular movement conditions. Moreover, it identifies the most promising planner for collision-free motion planning, being a valuable contribution for the inspection of maritime structures, as well as for the manipulation procedures of autonomous underwater vehicles during close range operations.

Abstract

Abstract
The atmospheric electric field is a key characteristic of the Earth system. Despite its relevance, oceanic measurements of the atmospheric electric field are scarce, as typically oceanic measurements tend to be focused on ocean properties rather than on the atmosphere above. This motivated the set-up of an innovative campaign on board the sail ship NRP Sagres focused on the measurement of the atmospheric electric field in the marine boundary layer. This paper describes the monitoring system that was developed to measure the atmospheric electric field during the planned circumnavigation expedition of the sail ship NRP Sagres.

Abstract
Blue Growth, a term first coined by the European Commission as an initiative to harness the untapped potential of Europe's oceans, seas and coasts, identified rich marine resources as an unique asset for economic development in coastal regions and on islands. The European Commission has through the Blue Growth objectives for the first time highlighted marine sectors as unique market opportunities with high growth potential which carry socio-economic importance to the development of coastal regions. Particularly marine sectors such as aquaculture, marine robotics, and marine renewable energy which fulfil global needs in food safety and security, enable monitoring and exploration in harsh and remote conditions, and globally growing energy needs were recognized as catalysts to achieve sustainable development. Marine start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) were identified as potential drivers in emerging marine sectors. However, they require support mechanisms tailored to their needs as they are competing for the same business and financial support as land-based SMEs, yet the research and development infrastructure is more difficult to access. ProtoAtlantic, an Interreg Atlantic Area funded project, provided marine-specific support mechanisms to marine start-ups and SMEs in emerging sectors, including business support through the accelerator and mentorship programs, enabling companies to fast track their product development through access to prototyping and testing facilities in all partner regions. The Interreg Atlantic Area encompasses partner regions in France, Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, and Spain. The consortium partners consist of Technopole Brest Iroise (Brest, France), University College Cork - UCC (Cork, Ireland), County Council Cork (Cork, Ireland), INESC TEC (Porto, Portugal), the European Marine Energy Centre - EMEC (Orkney, Scotland), EMERGE (Canary Islands, Spain), and the lead partner, Innovalia Association (Canary Islands, Spain). The strategic collaboration between the partners provided marine start-ups access to testing facilities in the Atlantic Ocean. The extreme living laboratories provided by EMEC, the LiR National Ocean Testing Facilities at UCC's Centre of Marine and Renewable Energy (MaREI centre), and INESC TEC promise harsh real-life conditions which test the suitability of marine technologies to the limit thereby providing start-ups and SMEs with an extra layer of confidence in developing their technologies. This cross-regional collaboration puts the ProtoAltantic program in a unique position, as it is the first of its kind to dedicate marine-specific support to marine start-ups and SMEs which have benefited from the opportunities that ProtoAtlantic has provided. ProtoAtlantic developed a holistic model for the prototyping and exploitation of innovative ideas in emerging maritime sectors. After the identification of ideas from the research community, start-ups, and SMEs with product innovation capacity in the maritime sector, an acceleration program with a normed and structured process was implemented, thus creating a unique ecosystem in the Atlantic that is addressing a co-creation paradigm with the local European start-ups communities and all the stakeholders.