A new type of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) has been successfully tested off the Orkney Isles in northern Scotland during a marine robot demonstration coordinated by the UK National Oceanography Centre (NOC). The trial seeks to help the Royal Navy better understand how to deploy and operate marine autonomous systems.
The Autonomous underwater vehicles, ecoSUBS, are one metre in length and weigh 4kg, that’s why they are commonly called ‘micro-AUVs’ and are able of diving to 500m.
Moreover, the AUV helped the Royal Navy collect oceanographic data to 100m depth and compare the findings to those collected via traditional ‘over-the-side’ instruments deployed from the ship. In that way, both Royal Navy and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory were able to evaluate this new technology. This high-tech robots helped the Royal Navy how to deploy and run marine autonomous systems to achieve good quality data.
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Additionally, except the use of AUV, the mission utilised two submarine gliders run by the Marine Autonomous and Robotic Systems facility at the NOC. The gliders had acoustic monitoring devices that were provided by the University of East Anglia and RS Aqua and had the ability to record vocalising marine mammals and man-made noises in the survey area up to 100km offshore in the northern North Sea.
The robot equipment targeted oceanographic features identified on satellite images that were provided by Plymouth Marine Laboratory and was appearing in the surface every few hours to transfer the oceanographic data back to the NOC via satellite. These data were then passed to the Met Office and Royal Navy to test how the data can enhance operational forecasting.
Terry Sloane, Managing Director of Planet Ocean addressed that the AUVs are a high-tech platform that is able to transmit data collection across the maritime sector.
Finally, Prof Russell Wynn of the NOC, and Chief Scientist of the mission pointed out NOC’s ambition to operate similar missions in the Arctic, with the aim of sending the next generation of marine robots under the ice to measure this rapidly changing environment.
