Collaborative Research: an autonomous profiling vehicle for concurrent acoustic, visual and environmental measurements in the mesopelagic ocean

海洋的中层海洋区域在200至1500米深，是物理过程、生物环境和动物群落的复杂混合体，在一系列时间和空间尺度上相互作用。由于船基仪器、声学调查、遥控和拖曳车辆系统收集的测量的固有局限性和不同步，中层海洋仍然缺乏抽样。该项目将开发一种新型的自主机器人仪器，以收集物理、视觉和声学数据，为大小从100微米到10厘米的动物提供同步的环境、丰度、分类和大小结构数据。这套传感器，再加上非破坏性推进系统和新系统的操作灵活性，将填补我们在理解海洋中水区生态方面的关键知识空白。这款车将在北大西洋的几次巡航中进行测试。研究人员将利用正在进行的百慕大大西洋时间序列(BATS)数据集进行交叉比较和验证。该项目还将为罗德岛大学、石溪大学和百慕大海洋科学研究所的本科生和研究生创造研究机会。将通过与小威廉·M·戴维斯夫妇的伙伴关系促进公众宣传。职业和技术高中，罗德岛海上教师计划和基本输入输出系统中大西洋机器人教育(海洋)计划。这些活动将制定支持STEM教育和下一代科学标准的活动。拟议的仪器将是一种隐形垂直剖面仪。传感器套件将包括可操纵的多频(38/70/200 kHz)宽带声学、立体微光成像、水下视觉剖面仪(UVP6)，以及温度、盐度、氧气、叶绿素、浊度、光束衰减和光合作用有效辐射(PAR)的环境传感器。垂直推进将通过内部泵送体积压载系统实现，该系统将在车辆周围造成最小的干扰，以减少已知的偏离净拖曳和推进器动力车辆观测的回避行为。低照度相机将使较大的生物和胶状动物的分类记录和大小辨别成为可能，而这些生物和胶状动物不是在拖网中定量捕获的。同时的声学和环境数据将提供比单独使用舰载系统更完整的栖息地信息。凭借这些能力，该仪器将在中间层的传感领域占据一个空缺的位置。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The mesopelagic region of the ocean, between 200 and 1500 meters deep, is home to a complex mixture of physical processes, biological environments and animal communities that interact over a range of temporal and spatial scales. The mesopelagic remains poorly sampled due to the inherent limitations and asynchrony of measurements collected with ship-based instruments, acoustic surveys, remotely operated and towed vehicle systems. This project will develop a novel autonomous robotic instrument to collect physical, visual and acoustic data that will provide concurrent environmental, abundance, taxonomy and size structure data for animals ranging from 100 microns to 10 centimeters in size. The suite of sensors, coupled with a non-disruptive propulsion system and the operational flexibility of the new system will address critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of the ecology of the ocean's midwater zone. The vehicle will be tested on several cruises in the North Atlantic. The researchers will leverage the ongoing Bermuda Atlantic Time Series (BATS) datasets for cross-comparison and validation. This project will also create research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Rhode Island, Stony Brook University and the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS). Public outreach will be facilitated through a partnership with the William M. Davies, Jr. Career and Technical High School, the Rhode Island Teacher-At-Sea program and the BIOS Mid-Atlantic Robotics IN Education (MARINE) program. These activities will develop activities to support STEM education and Next Generation Science Standards.The proposed instrument will be a stealthy vertical profiling vehicle. The sensor suite will consist of steerable multiple-frequency (38/70/200 kHz) broadband acoustics, stereo low light imaging, an Underwater Vision Profiler (UVP6), and environmental sensors for temperature, salinity, oxygen, chlorophyll, turbidity, beam attenuation and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). Vertical propulsion will be achieved by an internal pumped volume ballasting system, which will create minimal disturbance around the vehicle to reduce avoidance behaviors known to bias observations from net tows and thruster-powered vehicles. Low light cameras will enable taxonomic documentation and size discrimination of larger organisms and gelatinous animals not quantitatively captured in net tows. The concurrent acoustics and environmental data will provide more complete habitat information than is possible with shipboard systems alone. With these capabilities the instrument will occupy an unfilled niche for sensing in the mesopelagic.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.