Self-repowering AUVs for OOI
As part of the OOI programme, oceanographers will deploy multiple REMUS 600 AUVs fitted with a variety of sensors to observe the environment. These vehicles will autonomously swim into seafloor docking stations that are powered from moorings on the surface. The vehicles will autonomously recharge their batteries, upload scientific data collected during the previous missions and acquire configuration data for their next mission. When fully operational two REMUS 600 AUVs and seafloor docks will be become part of the array and will be deployed for periods of up to 120 days. During this period, each vehicle is expected to complete multiple missions without direct human intervention.
The OOI Program is managed and coordinated by the OOI Project Office at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, in Washington, D.C., and is responsible for construction and initial operations of the OOI network.
The OOI, a project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), will use networked infrastructure of science-driven sensor systems to measure the physical, chemical, geological and biological variables in the ocean and seafloor. The data will then be collected and disseminated on coastal, regional and global scales. Through a unique cyberinfrastructure, OOI will make ocean observing data available to anyone with an internet connection. Greater knowledge of the ocean's interrelated systems is vital for increased understanding of their effects on biodiversity, climate change, ocean and coastal ecosystems, environmental health and climate.
Subsequent phases of the OOI contract will include delivery of production AUVs and seafloor docking systems used to collect data as a part of the OOI Pioneer Array located off the New England coast.
The Pioneer Array spans the continental shelf-break, where water depths drop quickly from about 100 metres to greater than 500 metres over a distance of about 40km. The shelf break is a boundary region between cool coastal waters and warmer offshore and Gulf Stream waters. Its biological productivity and variability are strong, and the Pioneer Array plans to understand the interplay of physical and biological processes across many scales, from hundreds of metres to hundreds of kilometres. The Pioneer Array AUVs will operate in the vicinity of the shelf break, with each vehicle capable of making more than 50 missions per year in water depths up to 600 metres.
"AUVs are a critical tool to rapidly sample variability on dynamically relevant scales within the complex frontal system," said Al Plueddemann, a WHOI senior scientist and project scientist for the Pioneer Array. "This capability is key to improving our understanding of interactions between the continental shelf and slope."
