Special buoy collects data for seaweed farm with Advanced sensorica

Have you ever wondered what forces can a seaweed farm withstand? Too weird to ask right? Well it’s not one of those things you would do on a regular basis, but as it turns out, it does matter if you are into aquaculture. In the coming months, this is something that will indeed be measured off the coast of The Hague in the Netherlands, with a special buoy fitted with sensors and seaweed.

The Dutch government has the ambition to increase aquaculture, for example with farms for seaweed and mussels between wind farms. However, the North Sea is notorious for not being a friendly sea. To create a functioning, robust production site, it is essential to first collect data to see how much storm-force a seaweed farm can withstand. In a dedicated prototype space of the Sustainability Factory, part of the Da Vinci College, the young company Aqitec developed a special buoy and the instruments for the farm in the North Sea of the municipality of The Hague. More tests are taking place in this ‘smartest part of the North Sea’ to accelerate innovations.

The special buoy, the Azifarm, follows a design philosophy of simplicity, allowing forces on the system to be well controlled and therefore, easy to sow and harvest. The principle is scalable. Now that the Azifarm has been placed at sea, next up is testing the construction and operation of the system. Via integrated GPS, sensors, and cameras, the experts will collect measurement data like forces, movement, and images, etc. for further research.

Aqitec have even developed a dynamic modelling of the seaweed cultivation arrangements via their very own in-house software called “AQ-dynamic-farm” software.e