NIUST AUVs - Expanding Possibilities
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
12-1-2010
Department
Marine Science
School
Ocean Science and Engineering
Abstract
The National Institute of Undersea Science and Technology (NIUST)'s Underwater Vehicle Technology Center (UVTC) expanded their operational capabilities by acquiring a SeaBED class AUV in early 2009. This vehicle dubbed, Mola Mola after the Ocean Sunfish, is a superb addition to the UVTC, as it adds photographic capabilities at very slow moving speeds to the centers repertoire. The vehicle is designed to fly at speeds of 0.2 ms-1 about 3m above the seafloor, snapping high resolution digital images of the seafloor at preset intervals of 4 to 5 seconds. Normal mission behavior, programmed prior to launch of the vehicle, is to cover a certain area on the seafloor in a lawn mowing track, with parallel lines covering the entire area. At the end of the mission, geo-referenced photo mosaic maps of the target of interest on the sea floor are computed. The vehicle was deployed for several missions on the NASA vessel Liberty Star in the Bahamas. High resolution imagery of the bottom fauna and flora from depths too deep for deep divers to reach, provided insight into the distribution of Lion Fish in the coral reefs of the Bahamas. At the end of the field season engineering efforts were started to reorganize and replace certain hardware components to allow for improved navigation and data handling within the vehicles software architecture. They vehicle itself has since been modified from its original design, adding guided inertial navigation and improvements in its image acquisition process. Changes further include obstacle avoidance, GPS positioning and addition of a VHF radio beacon. In October 2009 combined efforts of both AUVs, the Mola Mola and the Explorer class Eagle Ray [1] were needed in the Gulf of Mexico aboard the NOAA ship Nancy Foster, to locate and retrieve information about sunken ships of historic interest, some of which may have disappeared below the water surface of the northern Gulf of Mexico, almost 200 years ago. In a collaboration between NIUST, MMS and NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, targets identified in side scan sonar images, were selected and investigated by the AUVs. Eagle Ray, due to its large size and design features, performed initial multibeam surveys of the target areas, producing high-resolution maps of the seafloor. These maps were used to determine safe working areas for the Mola Mola, which was subsequently launched to take a continuous series of photographs in close proximity to the seafloor, producing a photo-mosaic map of the target area. Eagle Ray served as a platform for a mass spectrometer mapping of the Mississippi Canyon Block 118 Hydrate Mount as a part of the Gas Hydrate Observatory efforts. Results o this dive produced a high resolution spatial map of methane gas distribution 6m above the seafloor, discovering three new methane seeps in the area Continued mapping efforts in the Hudson Canyon together with the National Marine Fisheries Service and Rutgers University. High resolution multibeam data from the canyon revealed interesting never before seen detail and bottom features in this area. Enough data to spark new and diverse interest about sub bottom composition and marine live within the canyon. ©2010 IEEE.
Publication Title
MTS/IEEE Seattle, OCEANS 2010
Recommended Citation
Diercks, A.,
Asper, V.,
Woolsey, M.,
Williams, J.,
Cantelas, F.,
Camilli, R.,
Rona, P. A.,
Guida, V.,
Macelloni, L.
(2010). NIUST AUVs - Expanding Possibilities. MTS/IEEE Seattle, OCEANS 2010.
Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/fac_pubs/19018
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