Autonomous Underwater Vehicle(AUV) and Towed Vehicle Technologies for Under-Ice Hydrothermal Vent Studies at the Gakkel Ridge
Abstract
The extreme polar environment presents a unique challenge to the use of the otherwise mature oceanographic technologies associated with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and towed vehicles. For deep water mapping and sampling applications, ice cover in the arctic is a formidable obstacle. In pursuing our goals to locate, map and sample hydrothermal vents on the Gakkel Ridge, we have built and plan to deploy two AUVs named JAGUAR and PUMA and a towed sampling sled with hydraulically actuated sampling chambers. Our methodologies for working with AUVs in the Arctic differ significantly from standard blue-water operations. Specifically, we have focused on, deploying and calibrating acoustic transponders with the limited mobility imposed by multi-year ice; a far more robust system architecture for dealing with component failures underwater; an autonomous manipulation system on the AUV for capturing sessile biological organisms and geological samples; and a low bandwidth acoustic tether for vehicle status, navigation and mission redirection. Our sampling sled was designed with the premise that the limited mobility associated with working in ice will at best provide us with a few, short opportunities to image and sample on a hydrothermal vent site. To this end our sled is equipped with a suite of imaging and chemical sensors as well as devices for quickly obtaining multiple samples of both sessile and motile biological organisms. We plan to deploy these new technologies during the International Polar Year in 2007 as part of a collaborative international effort to characterize the biological and geological characteristics of hydrothermal venting on the ultra-slow spreading Gakkel Ridge in the eastern Arctic basin.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AGUFM.C41B0329S
- Keywords:
-
- 0760 Engineering;
- 0794 Instruments and techniques