The use of autonomous unmanned vehicles for measuring the mean flow field in riverine environments
Abstract
Autonomous unmanned vehicles (AUVs) are commonly used in oceanic, estuarine and, more recently, riverine environments because they are small, versatile, moving platforms equipped with a suite of instruments for measuring environmental conditions. However, moving vessel observations, particularly those associated acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) observations, can be problematic owing to instrument noise, flow fluctuations, and spatial variability. As part of a riverine field experiment conducted in the Kootenai River, ID in August 2010, a spatial map of the mean horizontal and vertical velocity fields in a 200m wide, 8 m deep, and 0.5m/s meandering reach was obtained using two different AUV platforms: SeaRobotics unmanned surface vehicle (USV) and YSI/OceanServer Technology IVER-II unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV). The USV has dual-propellers navigating with GPS and was able to station-keep to within 1 m for 10 minutes at various locations within the reach in order to obtain the 3-D velocity field. Obtaining a statistically confident estimate of the mean velocity profile requires an appropriate time-interval to average instrument noise and environmental fluctuations. It has been previously proposed that 10 minutes is an adequate time interval when using an ADCP in a river. Preliminary results show that a shorter time interval is adequate, which would allow for increased spatial coverage. The UUV has a station-keeping capability when at the surface, but owing to its single propeller, it operates best by performing slow (0.2-0.35m/s) moving transects. Since the UUV is moving in a system that is spatially non-homogenous, additional errors in the mean velocity profile can be introduced due to spatial variability. An evaluation of the velocity profile quality, current measuring performance and minimum averaging time interval requirements are discussed for each platform, including the appropriate mission planning considerations for riverine observations. In addition, velocity time requirement minimums are included from stationary measurements in high-turbulent riverine environments obtained upstream in 3 m deep and 1.5 m/s reach. This work is supported by the Office of Naval Research Coastal GeoSciences.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFMOS51B1276T
- Keywords:
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- 0442 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Estuarine and nearshore processes;
- 4546 OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL / Nearshore processes