Deep Sea Underwater Robotic Exploration in the Ice-Covered Arctic Ocean With AUVs

Authors

Clayton Kunz
Chris Murphy
Richard Camilli
Hanumant Singh
John Bailey
Ryan M. Eustice
Chris Roman, University of Rhode IslandFollow
Michael Jakuba
Claire Willis
Taichi Sato
Ko-ichi Nakamura
Robert A. Sohn

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

9-2008

Department

Oceanography

Abstract

The Arctic seafloor remains one of the last unexplored areas on Earth. Exploration of this unique environment using standard remotely operated oceanographic tools has been obstructed by the dense Arctic ice cover. In the summer of 2007 the Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition (AGAVE) was conducted with the express intention of understanding aspects of the marine biology, chemistry and geology associated with hydrothermal venting on the section of the mid-ocean ridge known as the Gakkel Ridge. Unlike previous research expeditions to the Arctic the focus was on high resolution imaging and sampling of the deep seafloor. To accomplish our goals we designed two new Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) named Jaguar and Puma, which performed a total of nine dives at depths of up to 4062m. These AUVs were used in combination with a towed vehicle and a conventional CTD (conductivity, temperature and depth) program to characterize the seafloor. This paper describes the design decisions and operational changes required to ensure useful service, and facilitate deployment, operation, and recovery in the unique Arctic environment.

Citation/Publisher Attribution

Kunz, C., Murphy, C., Camilli, R., Singh, H., Bailey, J., Eustice, R., Jakuba, M., Nakamura, K., Roman, C., Sato, T., Sohn, R.A., & Willis, C. (2008). Deep sea underwater robotic exploration in the ice-covered Arctic ocean with AUVs. Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2008. IROS 2008. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on, pp.3654-3660, 22-26 Sept.

Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2008.4651097

Publisher Statement

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