MIT Robotics Seminar: Using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) to Explore the World

Speaker: Hanumant Singh ,
Date: Tuesday, September 27 2005
Relevant URL: http://www.whoi.edu/sites/hsingh

Abstract:
We currently have better maps of the far side of the moon than of our own planet. This talk looks at the emerging robotic technologies and sensor networks that should help us obtain high resolution optical, acoustic, and chemical descriptions of the oceanic environment in the context of spatial and temporal mapping for answering long term questions associated with marine benthic habitat characterization, climate change, marine geological and geophysical studies, and deep water archaeology.

Specifically this talk focusses on the design and use of AUVs, within the multidimensional and often conflicting constraints associated with acoustic mapping, acoustic communications, inertial and acoustic navigation systems, optical imaging and chemical sensing. We present our work in the context of real world data acquired using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) working in diverse applications including coral reef surveys off Puerto Rico and gas blowout sites in the Mid-Atlantic with the Seabed AUV, a forensic survey of the RMS Titanic in the North Atlantic at a depth of 4100 meters using the Hercules ROV and a survey of the TAG hydrothermal vent area in the mid-Atlantic at a depth of 2600m using the Jason II ROV.