Unmanned, computerized, robotic craft goes where divers can’t reach
OXFORD, Miss. – Most people don’t expect to spot a sophisticated unmanned underwater research vehicle around north Mississippi hill country, but two of the robotic crafts are housed at the University of Mississippi Field Station when they’re not out mapping a seabed.
As part of the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology, a new Autonomous Undersea Vehicle, or AUV, was delivered in late May, just in time for its maiden voyage to Lee Stocking Island in the Bahamas for a coral reef study. Built by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, this double-hulled vehicle, named Mola Mola, is designed to produce high-resolution digital images of the ocean floor.
The Mola Mola can dive to ocean depths of 2,000 meters, or about 1-1/4 miles. Hovering at 3 meters above the seafloor as it moves along a route programmed into its built-in computer control, the craft takes high-resolution photos of the seafloor every three seconds. These photographs can then be combined to form a detailed photomosaic, or photo map, of study sites in areas way too deep for divers with cameras to venture.
“With its high dynamic-range digital camera system and its slow flight characteristics, the Mola Mola will greatly enhance our existing AUV capabilities and allow us to explore a completely different set of targets in the ocean,” said Arne Diercks, AUV manager in NIUST’s Undersea Vehicle Technology Center. “Our AUV engineer, Max Woolsey, will be in charge of the Mola Mola because of its computing and sensor complexities.”
Woolsey is a recent UM graduate with a master’s degree in electrical engineering.
The AUV’s namesake aquatic creature is the Mola mola, commonly known as ocean sunfish. The name is particularly fitting, since both the AUV and this remarkable pelagic fish can dive to 2,000 meters and both have a marked vertical build – tall but narrow.
The new AUV is an important addition to NIUST’s research capabilities, said Ray Highsmith, NIUST director.
The ocean sunfish, or Mola mola, is among the world’s largest pelagic fishes.
“We have long wanted to add photographic capability to our vehicles, and the acquisition of Mola Mola is the result of extensive planning and budgeting efforts by Vernon Asper (director of NIUST’s Undersea Vehicle Technology Center based at USM) and myself.” Highsmith said. “High-quality photo layouts of a site provide much more information about a location than acoustic maps. For example, you can see animals living on the seafloor.
“It’s sort of like comparing an X-ray with a photograph of a person. The photograph provides a more satisfying experience, but together they provide much greater understanding of the whole person.”
The Mola Mola joins NIUST’s other AUV, the Eagle Ray, which does acoustic mapping of larger seafloor areas such as Hudson Canyon, and a Remotely Operated Vehicle that is attached to a support ship by a tether for control by a pilot, rather than an internal computer. The ROV is used by the Seabed Technology Research division of NIUST to study gas hydrates, greenhouse gases trapped in giant “ice cubes” on the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico.
All three vehicles are housed in a new state-of- the-art shop and lab built last fall at the UM Field Station on Bay Springs Road.
NIUST is a partnership between the University of Mississippi and the University of Southern Mississippi.
For more information on NIUST, go to http://niust.org/ .