Micro-VMS: A VMS Mobile Unit for Artisanal Fishing Vessels

摘要

It is widely accepted that Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) are currently a fundamental tool in the control of fishing activity. While larger vessels, because of their fishing capabilities, are the main target of this control, it is starting to be clear that by not monitoring smaller vessels, an important part of the Global Fishing effort is left uncontrolled, not because of the fishing capabilities of the single vessels themselves, but by the large numbers of vessels they represent. However, unlike larger vessels, these smaller boats have limited or no resources, and therefore installing the monitoring devices raises challenges that do not exist in their traditional VMS counterparts.Starting by identifying the main concepts that would be interesting to keep from the traditional VMS and the ones that would have to be adapted, options were taken, a mobile unit was then designed, built and tested. Proprietary HW was developed so that the unit would be well adapted to the monitoring purpose in mind at a reasonable cost. A SW application for the microcontroller was also developed and showed that it was possible to achieve the required monitoring with this device. The mobile unit developed is small enough to be carried in one hand and it's energetically autonomous for a period of several months by using a small lithium battery and having an average power consumption of less than 50mW.