Research project

RamaCam - In situ holographic imaging and chemical spectroscopy for long term scalable analysis of marine particles in deep-sea environments

Project overview

RamaCam aims to prove the concept of combined imaging and chemical analysis to differentiate between particles that cannot easily be told apart and monitor their distribution in the ocean. While particles are thought to play an important role in transporting carbon to the deep, and need to be monitored at scale to understand the impacts of plastics and plumes, they are invisible to most sensors.

RamaCam will leverage μs exposure CMOS and compact spatial heterodynes to develop light-weight, low-power holographic imaging and spectroscopy in a single device. The project will demonstrate to TRL 4 how such a package can be deployed on scalable monitoring platforms such as the Argo float.

This is a collaborative project between the University of Southampton, JAMSTEC, Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo and the University of Aberdeen. This project is funded by NERC and the JST under the SICORP program, Grant number NE/R01227X/1 Marine sensor proof of concept, 2018 to 2021.

Staff

Lead researchers

Professor Blair Thornton

Professor of Marine Autonomy
Research interests
  • seafloor 3D visual reconstruction: development of deep-sea imaging hardware and processing pipelines for calibration, localisation and 3D mapping of the seafloor with full-field uncertainty characterisation 
  • automated interpretation of data: development of AI methods for rapid scalable interpretation of seafloor imagery
  • robotics: development of low-cost, long endurance seafloor imaging floats and highly intelligent and manoeuvrable robotic imaging platform for visual survey of complex environments
Connect with Blair

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Research outputs