MRI: Development of a Light-Tethered Undersea Robotic Vehicle for Seafloor Intervention in Ice-Covered Environments and Ship of Opportunity Deployment

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

US ocean and polar sciences currently lacks an effective capability for routine under-ice inspection, sampling, and instrument manipulation, whether at the ice-ocean interface, in the water column of ice-covered oceans, or at the underlying high latitude ice shelves and coastal grounding lines. The US oceanographic community additionally lacks appropriate remotely operated vehicle (ROV) capabilities that can be regularly deployed from typical Global Class support ships. This is particularly challenging if they are to be accommodated alongside substantive multi-disciplinary research teams on the same vessel. Polar seas and ice covered oceans present additional challenges. Conventionally tethered ROVs may be restricted in their placement, as the ice-resistant research ships from which they are deployed may be forced to drift with migrating ice over distances of >1 km in a matter of hours while over-the-side operations are underway. Consequently, such ROVs may not be able to stay on station in locations of specific interest, nor systematically survey across targeted sections of either the seafloor or, for other key science needs, the underside of floating ice-shelves. A multi-institutional team of oceanographic engineers and scientists will use the lightweight fiber-optic tether and optical modem technologies that have recently been pioneered at WHOI Deep Submergence to provide solutions to both of these obstacles. Specifically, it is sought to develop a new polar remotely operated underwater vehicle, provisionally denoted PROV, capable of deployments in polar (including ice-covered) ocean regions traditionally considered inaccessible, except for the specific case of thick ice cover that can be accessed from vehicles and instrumentation designed for through-ice deployment. In polar oceans, the vehicle will have a unique research role to play at the coastal seafloor, in mid-water, and at ice-ocean boundaries, ranging from studying heat-flow beneath the Arctic ice-cap, investigating melting beneath the terminal glacial outlets of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, investigating ecosystem function and productivity associated with the calving of icebergs, and annual onset and melting of sea-ice. The PROV will equip the polar ocean sciences research community with unique capabilities otherwise not available, enabling US polar and ocean scientists to continue to lead compelling and urgent research into one of Earth's most pristine and increasingly changing natural environments.