The Development of an Autonomous Underwater Powered Glider for Deep-Sea Biological, Chemical and Physical Oceanography

A new generation of autonomous underwater gliders is currently being developed for the fields of marine biology, physical oceanography, and marine environmental studies, assessment and management at the Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne Florida, USA. The end-product of the project will be an autonomous powered glider that collects video, acoustic, and physical data, simultaneously obtains water samples for chemical analysis through mass-spectrum analysis, and is able to gather biological specimens to improve and automate inspection and sampling of the marine environment. The powered glider will be programmed for surveying and analyzing specific phenomenons. During the project several scientific surveys will be performed to test the abilities of the new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). For example, the assessment of marine invertebrate larvae and zooplankton (e.g. Krill - Euphausia superba) will be investigated from samples that are collected or photographed. All operations will be completely autonomous with the exception of the high level communication between the AUV and the support vessel. The AUV will contain a specially developed modular measurement unit containing various sensors to determine conductivity, temperature, depth, turbidity, and other sensors to detect various chemicals such as chlorophyll.