Cooperative marine litter detection and environmental monitoring using heterogeneous robotic agents

In the interest of both enabling long-term autonomous monitoring of at-risk marine environments and raising awareness and capabilities among citizens, a heterogeneous system of marine robots was developed, integrated, and deployed on a mission in the Adriatic Sea. This paper details a use-case scenario for a team of marine robotic agents for the purpose of cooperative marine litter detection and mapping, while also including interested citizens in the loop and allowing them to serve as operators. Two Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASVs), a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), and a Smart Buoy were deployed in a real marine environment to demonstrate the cooperative abilities of this system.