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

协作研究：用于中深海同步声学、视觉和环境测量的自主剖面车辆

• 批准号: 2123560
• 负责人: Amy Maas
• 金额: $ 18.56万
• 依托单位: Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2123560&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; autonomous; profiling; vehicle

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.

海洋中的介质区域深度为200至1500米，是物理过程，生物环境和动物群落的复杂混合物，它们在各种时间和空间尺度上相互作用。由于固有的局限性和使用基于船舶的仪器，声学调查，远程操作和拖曳的车辆系统收集的测量值，中质质量仍然很差。 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，该仪器将提供从100微米到10厘米的大小的环境，丰度，分类学和大小结构数据。 传感器套件，再加上非中断的推进系统以及新系统的操作灵活性，将解决我们对海洋中水区生态学的理解时的关键知识差距。该车辆将在北大西洋的几次巡游中进行测试。研究人员将利用正在进行的百慕大大西洋时间序列（蝙蝠）数据集进行交叉比较和验证。 该项目还将为罗德岛大学，斯托尼·布鲁克大学和百慕大海洋科学研究所（BIOS）的本科和研究生创造研究机会。 公共宣传将通过与小威廉·戴维斯（William M.这些活动将开发以支持STEM教育和下一代科学标准的活动。拟议的工具将是一种隐形的垂直分析工具。 传感器套件将由可通话的多频率（38/70/200 kHz）组成，宽带声学，立体声低光成像，水下视觉探测器（UVP6）和环境传感器的温度，盐度，盐度，盐度，氧气，氧气，绿色，叶绿体，浊度，浊度，浊度，浊度和光合辐射（PARITATE HADIATION（PARITIAT））。 垂直推进将通过内部泵送体积压载系统实现，这将在车辆周围产生最小的干扰，以减少净拖网和推进器驱动的车辆的偏向观察到已知的回避行为。 低光相机将使较大生物体和凝胶状动物的分类文档和大小歧视能够在净拖船中定量捕获。并发的声学和环境数据将提供比仅船上系统所能提供的更完整的栖息地信息。 借助这些功能，该工具将占据未填充的利基市场来感知中质质量。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的审查标准通过评估来获得支持的。