[POSTECH’s Gyeongbuk Sea Grant Center promotes IoT-based smart aquafarming technology]

POSTECH introduces smart monitoring technology that allows observation of real-time activity of fish in aquafarms of Gyeongsangbuk-do province.

POSTECH’s Gyeongbuk Sea Grant Center (Director: Prof. Son-Cheol Yu of CiTE) and the Gyeongbuk Fisheries Technology Center installed wireless monitoring systems that track real-time activity of fish and integrated measuring devices that measure water temperature and dissolved oxygen level in the aquafarms across the Gyeongsangbuk-do region on a trial basis.

This is part of Gyeongbuk Sea Grant Center’s projects to prevent the loss of farmed marine products caused by rapid changes in water temperature from sudden influx of cold water caused by typhoons in summer.

The wireless monitoring system allows real-time observation of fish ecology in the aquafarms from up to10 kilometers away using smartphones. In particular, applying the pressure-resistant cylinder design and the wide-angle lenses allow 180-degree observation underwater up to 100 meters deep.

In addition, the integrated measuring device is an equipment that can measure the individual real-time water temperature and dissolved oxygen level in each water tank remotely.

The Gyeongbuk Sea Grant Center expects that such wireless monitoring technology will help to smarten up the aquaculture industry by systematically organizing the information on the condition of the fish caused by changes in water temperature, marine environment and the feeding cycles.

Prof. Yu, the director of Gyeongbuk Sea Grant Center, commented, “We will continuously strive to solve the marine and fisheries issues of Gyeongbuk province and provide practical help to the fishermen using the ICT convergence technology.”

Gyeongbuk Sea Grant Center’s projects are conducted with the support from the Korea Institute of Marine Science & Technology Promotion (KIMST) and the province of Gyeongsangbuk-do to explore regional marine issues, nurture professionals and to serve the public good from research findings centered on regional universities.

The research results on the real-time wireless aquafarming monitoring system were presented at the 2020 Korean Society of Fisheries and Aquatic Science Conference and won the excellent presentation award.