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Autosub6000 dives to depth of 3.5 miles
October 29, 2009The United Kingdom's deepest diving Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), Autosub6000, has been put through its paces during an extremely successful engineering trials cruise on the RRS Discovery, 27 September to 17 October 2009.
Autosub6000 was working in regions of the Iberian Abyssal Plain in the North Atlantic deeper than 5600 metres and also around the steep and rugged terrain of the Casablanca Seamount, between Madeira and Morocco. The vehicle was designed and constructed by engineers at the Underwater Systems Laboratory in the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
Highlights:
* Operating at 5600 metres depth. Very few (if any) AUVs have ever operated autonomously at this depth.
* Survey at 3 metre altitude - paving the way for deep ocean photographic surveys.
* Terrain following at 10 metre altitude over very rough relief.
* Testing improved fault detection software so that the AUV can recover from hardware faults.
* Testing of recently fitted magnetometer, turbidity and precision salinity sensors.
One of the main goals of the Autosub6000 engineering trials was the demonstration of the accessibility of deep ocean regions approaching the 6000 metre design depth limit. On 3 October 2009, the AUV descended and reached it's pre-programmed target depth of 5525 metres in 1.5 hours. At this point, a navigation update procedure was undertaken to update and correct for the Autosub6000's drift which was incurred as it descended through the moving water column. After 2.5 hours from deployment, the Autosub6000 was on station at a depth of 5600 metres, positioned to accuracies of a few metres, and ready to start collecting scientific data.
Autosub6000 has been enhanced with a forward-looking vertically scanning obstacle-detection sonar and improved terrain-following control software, giving the AUV the ability to operate safely, closer to the seabed. This was demonstrated at low altitudes in the steep and rugged slopes of the Casablanca Seamount with a 10 metre altitude run starting at 3000 metres depth and rising up to 700 metres depth over a course of 7.5 kilometres. The ability of Autosub6000 to perform low-altitude colour photographic surveys was demonstrated on the more level summit regions of the Casablanca Seamount with low-speed surveys at altitudes of as low as 3 metres.
Steve McPhail, Autosub6000 project leader, said, "Apart from the correct functioning of the vehicle during the trials at extreme depths, what particularly pleased me was that we have now developed the control and obstacle avoidance systems such that we have the confidence to send the AUV into a hostile and rugged terrain. This will lead to more challenging and interesting scientific campaigns in the future."
Autosub6000 is now being prepared for a cruise on board the RRS James Cook to the Caribbean Sea near the Cayman Islands in April 2010, where it will be used in conjunction with the remotely operated vehicle Isis to search for deep hydrothermal vents.
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK)
* Operating at 5600 metres depth. Very few (if any) AUVs have ever operated autonomously at this depth.
* Survey at 3 metre altitude - paving the way for deep ocean photographic surveys.
* Terrain following at 10 metre altitude over very rough relief.
* Testing improved fault detection software so that the AUV can recover from hardware faults.
* Testing of recently fitted magnetometer, turbidity and precision salinity sensors.
One of the main goals of the Autosub6000 engineering trials was the demonstration of the accessibility of deep ocean regions approaching the 6000 metre design depth limit. On 3 October 2009, the AUV descended and reached it's pre-programmed target depth of 5525 metres in 1.5 hours. At this point, a navigation update procedure was undertaken to update and correct for the Autosub6000's drift which was incurred as it descended through the moving water column. After 2.5 hours from deployment, the Autosub6000 was on station at a depth of 5600 metres, positioned to accuracies of a few metres, and ready to start collecting scientific data.
Autosub6000 has been enhanced with a forward-looking vertically scanning obstacle-detection sonar and improved terrain-following control software, giving the AUV the ability to operate safely, closer to the seabed. This was demonstrated at low altitudes in the steep and rugged slopes of the Casablanca Seamount with a 10 metre altitude run starting at 3000 metres depth and rising up to 700 metres depth over a course of 7.5 kilometres. The ability of Autosub6000 to perform low-altitude colour photographic surveys was demonstrated on the more level summit regions of the Casablanca Seamount with low-speed surveys at altitudes of as low as 3 metres.
Steve McPhail, Autosub6000 project leader, said, "Apart from the correct functioning of the vehicle during the trials at extreme depths, what particularly pleased me was that we have now developed the control and obstacle avoidance systems such that we have the confidence to send the AUV into a hostile and rugged terrain. This will lead to more challenging and interesting scientific campaigns in the future."
Autosub6000 is now being prepared for a cruise on board the RRS James Cook to the Caribbean Sea near the Cayman Islands in April 2010, where it will be used in conjunction with the remotely operated vehicle Isis to search for deep hydrothermal vents.
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK)
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Current Events and Autonomous Underwater Vehicle News RSSHyBIS explores the Casablanca seamount
In October, the hydraulic benthic interactive sampler HyBIS maintained by the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) made ten dives over the Casablanca Seamount, a four-kilometre high seamount located some 300 miles west of Morocco.
Robot Vehicle Surveys Deep Sea Off Pacific Northwest
The first scientific mission with Sentry, a newly developed robot capable of diving as deep as 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) into the ocean, has been successfully completed by scientists and engineers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of Washington (UW).
New robot scouts best locations for components of undersea lab
Like a deep-sea bloodhound, Sentry - the newest in an elite group of unmanned submersibles able to operate on their own in demanding and rugged environments - has helped scientists pinpoint optimal locations for two observation sites of a pioneering seafloor laboratory being planned off Washington and Oregon.
Researchers give new hybrid vehicle its first test drive in the ocean
Taking a page out of a science fiction story, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Webb Research Corporation (Falmouth, Mass.) have successfully flown the first environmentally powered robotic vehicle through the ocean. The new robotic "glider" harvests heat energy from the ocean to propel itself across thousands of kilometers of water.
UD scientists take underwater robot on Black Sea expedition
Using a novel underwater robot, University of Delaware marine scientists will help reveal the mysteries of the Black Sea's geology and maritime history, including ages-old shipwrecks, during an international expedition that is now underway.
Deep-Water Discovery
Last December, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science researchers using advanced sonar techniques discovered new deepwater reef sites in the Straits of Florida between Miami and Bimini.
Drug discovery team to explore newly discovered deep-sea reefs
Harbor Branch scientists, along with colleagues from the University of Miami, will use the Harbor Branch Johnson-Sea-Link II submersible to explore for the first time newly discovered deep-sea reefs between Florida and the Bahamas.
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Maps Ancient Greek Shipwreck
After lying hidden for centuries off the coast of Greece, a sunken 4th century B.C. merchant ship and its cargo have been surveyed by an international team using a robotic underwater vehicle.
Higher Water Temperatures and Reduced Ice Cover In the Arctic Ocean
Over the past six weeks, scientists aboard the research vessel "Polarstern" of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research have been investigating changes in ocean temperature and sea ice cover in the area of Fram Strait between Spitsbergen and Greenland. In this area significant exchange of water masses between the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean takes place. The ongoing process of global warming throughout the past years has also altered conditions in Fram Strait and the North Polar Sea.
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Technology and Applications of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (Ocean Science and Technology, V. 2) by Gwyn Griffiths (Editor) The oceans are hostile. Gathering information on life, the seabed, indeed any topic, is incredibly difficult. Autonomous Under Vehicles are robots that are revolutionising the way researchers and industry obtain data. Advances in technology have resulted in capable vehicles that have made new discoveries on how oceans work and have dramactically reduced the cost to industry of surveying the seabed. This book describes the technologies that have made this happen and a host of applications from fish abundance studies to finding diamonds beneath the sea. It is essential reading for those wanting to make the best use of autonomous vehicles. |
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Autopilot Using Differential Thrust for ARIES Autonomous Underwater Vehicle by Christopher J. Sarton (Author) This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA DEPT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon. It is not spiral-bound, but rather assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The Storming Media report number is A455714. The abstract provided by the Pentagon follows: Future underwater missions will require data transmission via satellite, In particular, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) is interested in experimenting with communications using the GOES satellite system, which is government owned. Unfortunately, communication antennas must point to specific satellites in this system and thus underwater vehicles must steer a specific course on the surface... |
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NPS AUV Workbench: Collaborative Environment for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) Mission Planning and 3D Visualization by Chim S. Lee (Author) This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon. It is not spiral-bound, but rather assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The Storming Media report number is A838224. The abstract provided by the Pentagon follows: The absence of common software platforms for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) mission planning and analysis is an ongoing impediment to collaborative work between research institutions, their partners, and end users, This thesis details the design and implementation of a distributable application to facilitate AUV mission planning and analysis. Java-based open-source libraries and a component-based framework provide... |
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Proceedings of the 1992 Symposium on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Technology: June 2 and 3, 1992 Washington, Dc, USA by Ieee (Publisher) | |
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Hardware Integration of the Small Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Navigation System (SANS) Using a PC/104 Computer by Kadir Akyol (Author) This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon. It is not spiral-bound, but rather assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The Storming Media report number is A302263. The abstract provided by the Pentagon follows: At the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), a small AUV navigation system (SANS) has been developed for research in support of shallow-water mine countermeasures and coastal environmental monitoring. The objective of this thesis is to develop a new version of SANS, aimed at reducing size and increasing reliability by utilizing state-of-the-art hardware components. The new hardware configuration uses a PC/104 computer system, and... |
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Obstacle Avoidance Control for the REMUS Autonomous Underwater Vehicle by Christopher D. Chuhran (Author) This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon and assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The abstract provided by the Pentagon follows.As the Navy continues its development of unmanned underwater vehicles, the need for total autonomous missions grows. Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) allow for advances in mine warfare, harbor reconnaissance, undersea warfare and more. Information can be collected from AUVs and downloaded into a ship or battle group's network. As AUVs are developed it is clear forward-look sonar will be required to be able to detect obstacles in front of its search path. Common obstacles in the littoral environment... |
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An XML-Based Mission Command Language for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) by Darrin L. Hawkins (Author), Barbara C. Van Leuvan (Author) This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon. It is not spiral-bound, but rather assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The Storming Media report number is A905714. The abstract provided by the Pentagon follows: Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are now being introduced into the fleet to improve Mine Warfare capabilities. Several AUVs are under government-contracted development. Mission planning and data reporting vary between vehicles and systems. This variation does not pose an immediate problem, as only one AUV is typically in operation at any given time. However, as more AUVs are put into production, cooperative operations... |
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A Graphic User Interface (GUI) for Generating NPS Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Execution Script Files by Joel Doleac (Author) This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA DEPT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon. It is not spiral-bound, but rather assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The Storming Media report number is A271963. The abstract provided by the Pentagon follows: The Naval Postgraduate School is on the leading edge of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) research and has developed its own AUV called Phoenix. A new AUV is being constructed in order to increase the vehicle's mission capabilities. Despite its autonomy, the AUV needs to have the mission plan defined before starting. For that purpose, a text file containing a mission script is sent to the... |
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Merging Virtual and Real Execution Level Control Software for the Phoenix Autonomous Underwater Vehicle by Michael L. Burns (Author) This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon. It is not spiral-bound, but rather assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The Storming Media report number is A821423. The abstract provided by the Pentagon follows: The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is developing an AUV, Phoenix. The Phoenix has the capability of precise navigation, however too much time is needed to validate a new section of code. NPS is also developing a virtual AUV, which has the capability of being networked, having flexible missions, and having a quick feedback of results when validating new portions of code. The virtual AUV has a drawback of never being tested... |
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Phoenix Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV): Networked Control of Multiple Analog and Digital Devices Using LonTalk by Forrest C. Young (Author) This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon. It is not spiral-bound, but rather assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The Storming Media report number is A803243. The abstract provided by the Pentagon follows: The purpose of this thesis is to simplify analog and digital device control inside the Phoenix autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Phoenix is required to process many data information streams associated with a variety of different sensors. Real time processing is required both for input sensing and for output directing. As presently configured, hardware devices aboard the Phoenix are manually connected and configured using... |
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