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Deepseawaters
Home Robot Vehicle Surveys Deep Sea Off Pacific Northwest
Robot Vehicle Surveys Deep Sea Off Pacific Northwest
August 13,2008
 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).The
vehicle surveyed and helped pinpoint several proposed deep-water
sites for seafloor instruments that will be deployed in the
National Science Foundation (NSF)'s planned Ocean Observatories
Initiative (OOI).
Sentry,
an autonomous undersea vehicle, was used for the first time
last month.It is a state-of-the-art, free-swimming underwater
robot that can operate independently, without tethers or other
connections to a research ship.
The autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, is pre-programmed
with guidance for deep-water surveying, but it can also make
its own decisions about navigation on the terrain of the seafloor.
"This investment into emerging technologies is paying off
in delivering state-of-the-art science support," said Julie
Morris, director of NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences.
"In the near future, Sentry will conduct high-resolution oceanographic
surveys that would be otherwise impossible."
"We
are changing the way ocean science is done, launching a new
era in which an ensemble of technologies will provide us with
an increasing capacity for exploring and interacting with
the global oceans," said John Delaney, chief scientist
of the expedition and principal investigator for the UW-led
regional observatory in the planned OOI.
"Sentry
had a very successful introduction," said Dana Yoerger,
the lead WHOI engineer for the vehicle. "We had tested the
AUV as best we could before we got out here, but the steep
terrain of the deep sea is quite a different matter."
The
AUV can collect the data needed to make seafloor maps at a
resolution of less than one meter. On this first cruise, Sentry
collected as many as 60 million individual soundings of seafloor
depth in a single dive.
Sentry
is designed to swim like a fish or fly like a helicopter through
the water. The sleek hydrodynamic design allows the vehicle
to descend quickly from the sea surface to the depths (about
3,500 meters per hour).When necessary, the AUV also can hover
over the bottom for close-up inspections, navigational decision-making,
and for rising up and down over rugged seafloor terrain.
"Sentry
is a true robot, functioning on its own in the deep water,"
said Rod Catanach, a WHOI engineer who works with
Sentry. "The vehicle is completely on its own from the time
it is unplugged on the deck and cut loose in the water."
Vehicles
like Sentry and its successors will plug into and
interact with the ocean observatory system, using the power
charging systems and high speed communications delivered by
the submarine networks.
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