Sea-Scan Project

Project Team

Principal Investigators:

Dr. Marco Ruffini

Dr. John Kennedy

Research Fellow:

Dr. Lara Flanagan

Overview

Sea-Scan is a pioneering project that uses undersea telecommunications cables for advanced maritime surveillance, with the aim of enhancing Ireland’s ability to detect and classify “dark vessels” – those operating without active transponders – within our coastal waters.

Utilising Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and State of Polarisation (SoP) technologies, the Sea-Scan project repurposes existing fibre optic infrastructure so it can also serve as a vast network of underwater sensors.  

In addition, the system is capable of detecting potential threats to the cables themselves, such as from boats anchoring nearby or trawling, or from other seabed disturbances that could arise from accidental or deliberate interference with critical communications infrastructure. Advanced AI algorithms are applied to the data collected, enabling the system to detect vessels and assess threats, reducing false alarms. 

The Sea-Scan project is one of five to have successfully progressed to the Seed Phase of the Research Ireland–Defence Innovation Challenge.  

Funding Agency

Research Ireland