Improved Navigation for Deep Submergence Vehicle ALVIN: Bottom-Lock Doppler and Ring Laser Gyroscope Integration

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

0076321 Walden This award to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts provides instrumentation to significantly improve the navigation capabilities of the manned submersible Alvin, a shared-use vehicle operated by WHOI under a memorandum of understanding among NSF, ONR and NOAA. The instrumentation supported here, including a laser doppler instrument and attitude sensors (accelerometers), will allow major improvements in "dead reckoning" by tracking bottom and correcting for errors caused by near-bottom currents. The improvements in positional accuracy will be of substantial advantage to marine scientists using the submersible in their research during 2001 and future years. ***