An integrated system for navigation and positioning of an ROV for scientific exploration

The NOAA Vents program and Canada´s Pacific Geoscience Centre and Institute of Ocean Sciences have recently collaborated in an effort to utilize Canada´s HYSUB 5000 ROV in the study of hydrothermal venting and seafloor processes along a mid-ocean ridge. A navigation system has been developed to geodetically position the ROV over rough terrain in deep water using a long baseline acoustic net, differential GPS and software tailored to the needs of the operators and scientists. Ship positioning and station-keeping is a vital part of successful ROV operations and special considerations were given for operation from a non-dynamically positioned research vessel. With the growing acceptance of remotely operated vehicles for performing tasks previously allocated to manned submersibles, the demands on the navigation system have increased. To date, the navigation system has produced good geodetic results while the ROV has successfully sampled hot water vents, connected to a deeply moored instrument package for data retreival, collected biological samples and photographed large areas of the seafloor-all tasks previously performed by ALVIN in the VENTS and RIDGE research programs