SDG 14 : Life Below Water

Plastic pollution can be scattered across large stretches of coastline, making it difficult for communities and clean-up groups to know where to focus their efforts. In January 2025, University of Limerick (UL) researchers launched a free mobile app that turns data gathered by drones into information that can help people locate plastic waste. 

Developed through the EU-funded BluePoint project by researchers at UL's Centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CRIS) and Lero, the Research Ireland Centre for Software, the BluePoint app uses artificial intelligence and data from camera-equipped drones to identify plastic waste and map its location. 

Images gathered by camera-equipped drones are processed to identify plastic waste and map its location. The resulting information can be displayed through the app to show pollution hotspots and detected items. 

BluePoint also includes an augmented reality function that allows users to visualise detected plastic waste in their surroundings. The app was publicly available on both iPhone and Android in 2025, taking technology developed through the research project beyond the laboratory and making its outputs accessible to communities and clean-up groups. 

The technology forms part of a wider BluePoint project exploring a circular approach to marine plastics across the Atlantic region. UL's role focuses on using drones to identify marine plastic, developing sensor payloads and processing images, with detection data intended to support partners, local authorities and citizen-science initiatives in locating and managing plastic waste.

As activity in Ireland's seas expands, understanding its effects on marine ecosystems requires reliable ways to detect changes in biodiversity and environmental conditions. In July 2025, University of Limerick (UL) began work on MariBiome, a five-year research project developing new technologies to monitor the impact of changing ocean use on Ireland's marine environment. 

Funded by the Marine Institute, the €1.5 million project is led by Dublin City University in partnership with UL, Queen's University Belfast and Atlantic Technological University. UL received €404,000 in project funding. UL's Centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CRIS), led on the project by Professor Gerard Dooly with PhD researcher Luke Griffin, leads the work package on autonomous marine platforms. 

By the end of 2025, the UL team had developed prototype sampling systems, drone-based water sampling and an ASV platform, and demonstrated these autonomous systems in the field. 

MariBiome will combine different approaches to marine monitoring, including environmental DNA (eDNA). Organisms leave traces of genetic material in seawater, which can help researchers identify which species are present without having to physically observe or capture them. 

The project will develop tests suitable for use during fieldwork, alongside technologies for monitoring marine biodiversity, microplastics and chemical contaminants. UL is designing and building an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) to carry these samplers and imaging sensors to sea. The vessel holds its position precisely while a winch lowers the payloads to set depths. The sampling systems are also being made compatible with drones and underwater robots. 

The project will also establish a baseline for marine biodiversity around Ireland, with test sites including Dublin Bay, Galway Bay and Castlemaine Harbour in Co. Kerry, and develop approaches for assessing how changing use of Ireland's ocean affects marine ecosystems.

Monitoring marine and coastal environments can be difficult, particularly across large or inaccessible areas. In 2025, researchers at University of Limerick (UL) developed and tested drone, imaging and machine-learning technologies that can map sensitive salt-marsh habitats and detect waste in aquatic and coastal environments. 

One strand of the research focused on salt marshes, important coastal ecosystems that support biodiversity and can act as carbon sinks. Researchers combined images from three camera technologies mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with machine-learning techniques to distinguish different types of salt-marsh vegetation. Combining the camera data achieved 97% classification accuracy, compared with 92% from the best-performing individual sensor. 

UL researchers also tested how drones could be used to identify pollution within these environments. Fieldwork at Derrymore Island used cameras recording several wavelength bands to distinguish plastics and other debris from vegetation, soil and water. The researchers found that the approach could detect and classify debris with high accuracy without physically disturbing the habitat. 

A further system developed in 2025 tackled floating waste. Researchers combined autonomous drone navigation, live video and artificial intelligence to detect debris while a drone was in flight and calculate its location. During field trials, the system maintained high detection precision at tested flight altitudes of up to 7.5 metres. 

The research forms part of wider work at UL's Centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CRIS) applying marine and aerial robotics to environmental monitoring. In November 2025, this work was among the research demonstrated to An Taoiseach Micheál Martin during a visit to CRIS, which also showcased applications including seabed exploration, monitoring cold-water corals and marine biodiversity, and supporting offshore renewable energy.