From September 29th to October 03rd, the second and final trials of the MASK project took place in Biograd na Moru, Croatia. The trials were part of the 16th Breaking the Surface (BTS), international interdisciplinary field workshop on maritime robotics and its applications.

Our event included educational robotics workshops and tests with different ROVs (maneuvering and orientation exercises, navigation missions, deploying and picking up objects with ROV manipulators, etc). As well, MASK is dedicated to environmental protection and one of the main objectives is to teach students on how to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect and classify plastic bottles and face masks on the seabed. During this event the students labelled newly collected images and tested AI trained on images from the first year trials on the new data. 

The project was presented to a wide audience at the BTS (attended by 200 people) providing an excellent dissemination activity. Moreover, it also allowed the students not only to participate in the MASK trials but also to attend some of the lectures and learn more about maritime robotics from worldwide experts. During our “hands-on” session (in the official BTS program) all conference participants had the opportunity to learn from the students' experience and operate the ROVs under their guidance.

5 ROVs were used:
-         Blueye Pro
-         Blueye Pioneer
-         Qysea Fifish V6 Plus
-         BlueROV
-         Chasing Gladius

and Roboflow was used to train and test AI algorithms with great success. 

At the CECIIS conference in Dubrovnik (20-22 September 2023), our team member Tomislav Jagušt from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing had a short presentation about the MASK project. In the presentation,  Tomislav described the main goals and motivation behind the project and also provided a brief overview of project activities. The presentation highlighted some of the already conducted activities, such as online lectures, virtual, remote and live testing of underwater robots in Baška.

From the 14th to the 18th of May, the MASK project had its first trials in Baška, Krk Island, Croatia. These took place  during the 16th Baška GNSS Conference: Technologies, Techniques and Applications Across PNT and the 3rd Workshop on Smart Blue and Green Maritime Technologies. The program included a series of icebreaking games, educational robotics workshops and tests with robots at the hotel pool. Seven different robots were tested throughout the week and most tests took place with five robots working at the same time. Missions included navigation in a polygon, wall following, circle around an obstacle and picking up objects. As the project is dedicated to environmental protection, the objects to be picked were protection masks and plastic bottles. Moreover, images were collected to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect and classify these objects. Due to bad weather, trials at sea were reduced but students had the opportunity to test the robots during a storm with low visibility and waves making the trials realistic and challenging. As only 10 students could travel, remote testing took also place for the students involved in the project that could not attend in person. In addition, the project was presented during the conference to a wide audience and students participated in the presentation by providing their feedback on the project trials to the attendees. This provided high visibility to the project and at the same time allowing the students to interact with professionals from the field. In particular, attendees had the opportunity of controlling the robots but they were taught by the students on a reverse train the trainers experiement.

MASK project partner Bedekovčina High School visited LABUST, FER on 21st March 2023. The students had to opportunity to learn more about LABUST projects during a presentation by Assistant Professor Đula Nađ. After, they had the opportunity of driving different types of robots in LABUST pool, both surface vehicles and ROVs. The students considered it a fun activity and are looking forward to the more challenging task of remoting control the same ROVs, an activity forecast in the Erasmus+ MASK project. The remote control of ROVs will act as preparation to the trials at sea in May in Baška, that will take place during the 16th Baška GNSS Conference, organized by the MASK project partner University of Rijeka, Faculty of Maritime Studies.

On the 1st of February, Project Coordinator Dr. Fausto Ferreira from FER, University of Zagreb and Associate Professor Lovro Maglić from the Center for Marine Technologies, Faculty of Maritime Studies, University of Rijeka visited Baška, Croatia to prepare the first experimental trials at sea to take place between 16th and 18th of May 2023. The testing site was visited and logistics for the deployment at sea were discussed. Moreover, a meeting with the hotel where the participants will be accomodated and theoretical lectures will take place was held to discuss the program and its conjunction with the 16th Baška GNSS Conference.