Two-dimensional waterflow sensor using multiple absolute pressure sensors

This study reports a two-dimensional (2D) waterflow sensor for marine aquaculture. In recent years, environmental monitoring has been widely developed in marine aquaculture. Among these monitoring, ocean currents are one of the important factors in capturing the inflow of hypoxic water into fish cages. However, there were no low-power, simple waterflow sensors that could be adapted to fish cages. Here we propose a waterflow sensor using with a cylindrical housing and an array of six absolute pressure sensor elements to measure 2D waterflow velocity around a fish cage. 2D waterflow velocity is calculated via a polynomial regression model of the responses of six pressure sensors and sensor tilt angle. By constructing the model for each tilt angle, the developed sensor responded with sufficient sensitivity to waterflow velocities from 0.4 to 2.0 m/s.