GIST Leads Technology Transfer to Localize Marine Equipment with 95% Import Dependence

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwan-woo] The Information and Communication Convergence Research Center at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) recently announced on the 23rd that it held an online briefing session for the technology transfer of the domestically developed marine acoustic sounding physical property monitoring device.

Marine equipment technology is a fusion of IT (Information Technology), MT (Marine Science and Technology), and ET (Environmental Technology). It is attracting attention as a promising future industry because it can be utilized in high value-added new marine industries such as global warming research, defense, renewable energy industry, offshore aquaculture farms, and seabed resource development.

This briefing session was hosted by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Korea Institute of Marine Science and Technology Promotion, and organized by the GIST Information and Communication Convergence Research Center, conducted online to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in accordance with government policies.

The marine acoustic sounding physical property monitoring device domestically developed project, conducted over eight years from 2013 to this year under the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries’ “Marine Equipment Development and Infrastructure Construction Project,” successfully achieved 9 domestic patent registrations and 2 technology transfers, and filed 5 international patents and 21 domestic patents.

Among the results, the domestically developed high-resolution Multi Beam Echo Sounder (MBES) and the Ocean Properties Monitoring System (OPMS) for remote transmission of marine physical properties are technologies that detect underwater obstacles or terrain and collect marine information in specific sea areas to provide information that can respond to aquaculture fisheries and marine disasters.

This briefing session was prepared to contribute to actual corporate sales through the transfer of such technologies, create employment, and lay the foundation for the advancement of marine exploration, investigation, and observation.

In the case of the high-resolution Multi Beam Echo Sounder, when compared with the world-renowned Danish company Reson’s MultiBeam Echosounder equipment, including Projector & Receiver (number of beams, carrier frequency, along-track beamwidth, across-track beamwidth) and Sonar Processor Unit (Max Swath Range, depth resolution, maximum detection depth), it achieved the same level as the world’s highest standards, and the manufactured device has completed verification by the National Oceanographic Research Institute.

The acoustic sensor of the marine physical property monitoring system also achieved the same level as global technology in terms of transmission voltage sensitivity, underwater impedance of transmission sensors, reception voltage sensitivity, and beam pattern for each Acoustic Transducer device, and completed official certification by the Agency for Defense Development.

With the technology transfer of these research achievements, developing marine equipment that currently depends on imports for 95% can replace imports worth over 10 billion KRW annually for similar equipment and over 30 billion KRW for related equipment, and it is expected to export equipment to the global market worth over 500 billion KRW annually and secure various core technologies.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.