Five Students of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) Surabaya have made an innovation in the maritime sector by creating an underwater technology sensor that is installed in the water borders of Indonesia.
Standing proudly behind the innovation, there are Muhammad Mursyid, Ghifari Hanif Mustofa, Ahmad Fahmi Prakoso, Edo Danilyan, and Aldiansyah Wahfiudin who worked together to make Humanless Underwater Sensors Technology (HUST).
Wildan Muhammad Mursyid, the team leader, explained that HUST is an innovative endeavor that is functioned to detect ships without permission or ships suspected for illegal fishing. “The HUST technology can also be used to detect marine disasters such as submarine earthquake and tsunami” he added.
Wildan pointed out that the idea arose because of several reasons. One of them is because the number of illegal fishing cases that occurred in Indonesian territorial waters remained high. If this issue continues, it can cause a rapid decline in the fish biomass in the territorial waters.
Wildan said that currently, Indonesia does not have proper development of sensor technology and underwater earthquake detector. Indonesia only has detection sensors (seismic network) which only worked in mainland areas. Therefore, HUST is expected to be a substitute means of detection sensors (seismic networks) in water areas, and eventually, it can improve the accuracy of existing detection systems.
The team leader also continued that HUST system work under three sensor mechanisms. Those are earthquake sensors to detect seabed vibrations, metal sensors to detect approaching ships, and ID sensors to detect the ID Transmitters that already have fishing permits in border areas.
In the operation, HUST system and detector can provide four types of information: normal conditions (no visible vibration), detected vibrations, licensed ships, and illegal ships. The data obtained by HUST will be delivered to the monitoring post via signal transmitters.
Furthermore, the data received can be processed and validated further using satellite images in the coordinate area of the detection. If the illegal ships are detected, the post can assign personnel to take firm action to respond to the condition. The post also sends notifications to the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) if there is a detected vibration so that they can immediately analyze the possibility of a tsunami.
With this innovation, these ITS students managed to excel in the World Invention and Competition Exhibition (WICE) held on 12 September 2020. In the competition which lasted for five days, Wildan and his team won a gold medal in this competition organized by the Indonesian Youth Scientist Association (IYSA) and SEGI College Subang Jaya Malaysia. Furthermore, they also attained a special award from the Malaysia Innovation, Invention, & Creativity Association (MIICA).