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

美国海洋和极地科学目前缺乏对冰下进行例行检查、采样和仪器操作的有效能力，无论是在冰-海界面、在冰盖海洋的水柱中，还是在高纬度冰架和沿海接地线下面。此外，美国海洋界还缺乏合适的遥控潜水器(ROV)能力，这种能力可以从典型的全球级支持舰艇上定期部署。如果他们要与实质性的多学科研究小组一起在同一艘船上工作，这就特别具有挑战性。极地海洋和冰盖海洋带来了额外的挑战。传统的系泊遥控潜航器的放置可能受到限制，因为在进行越岸作业时，部署它们的抗冰考察船可能被迫在几个小时内与漂移的冰一起漂流1公里。因此，这样的水下机器人可能无法停留在特定感兴趣的地点，也不能系统地对海底的目标部分进行调查，或者出于其他关键科学需求，对漂浮冰架的底部进行系统调查。一个由海洋工程师和科学家组成的多机构团队将使用最近在世界卫生组织深海潜水公司首创的轻型光纤缆绳和光学调制解调器技术来为这两个障碍提供解决方案。具体地说，试图开发一种新的极地遥控潜水器，暂定为PROV，能够在传统上被认为无法进入的极地(包括冰盖)海洋区域部署，但厚厚冰盖的特殊情况除外，可以从为穿越冰层部署而设计的飞行器和仪器进入。在极地海洋，运载火箭将在沿海海底、水中和冰海边界发挥独特的研究作用，范围包括研究北极冰盖下的热流，调查格陵兰和南极冰盖末端冰口下的融化，调查与冰山崩解有关的生态系统功能和生产力，以及海冰的年度开始和融化。PROV将为极地海洋科学研究界配备独特的能力，否则将无法获得，使美国极地和海洋科学家能够继续领导对地球上最原始和日益变化的自然环境之一的令人信服和紧迫的研究。

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.