Nutrient sensors on autonomous vehicles

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Oceans occupy 70% of Earth's surface and play a key role in influencing our climate, weather and food security, yet they are still largely not yet explored or understood. In particular it is essential that we increase our understanding of ocean chemistry, because it determines how ocean ecosystems function and respond to changes in our climate and increased human activity. Seawater chemical measurements are usually taken using a research ship to collect water samples, which are then either preserved and sent back to the laboratory or analysed on-board the ship. Research ships are incredibly expensive to build and operate, and this really limits our knowledge of chemical distributions in our oceans (and how they change over time). We could say that the oceans are under-sampled.This has led to the development of several robotic systems (Marine Autonomous Systems) which operate either on the surface (e.g. Unmanned Surface Vehicles) or at depth (e.g. underwater gliders and Autosub). In order for robotic systems to be realistically able to replace or augment the activities of a research ship, it is essential for them to be able to take chemical measurements on-board. Currently there is a real lack of reliable and accurate chemical sensors that can be deployed on marine autonomous systems, preventing these systems from reaching their full potential. This project will advance the development of a whole family of miniaturised nutrient analysers developed at NOC so that they can be routinely deployed on autonomous vehicles. The sensors are effectively miniaturised laboratories (lab-on-a-chip) which perform seawater chemical analysis in microfluidic channels using tiny amounts of seawater sample and chemical reagents. The results of these analyses (information about the concentration of nutrients in seawater such as phosphate and silicate) will be transmitted from the autonomous vehicle using satellites, so that scientists back in the lab can receive real-time data. We have been developing these sensors for several years and have deployed them previously in rivers, estuaries and in the ocean. This project will improve the sensors to make them more suitable for deployment on marine autonomous systems, and represents the final push to allow them to achieve routine usage on robotic marine vehicles. Ultimately, this will result in more complete and lower-cost ocean chemical datasets, helping advance our knowledge of how ocean ecosystems work and how they respond to a changing climate.To ensure that the sensors can be used widely, we will work with industry, including existing partners, to make commercial products that can be sold to a wide range of users. This will enable scale-up and widespread use of the technologies and project outputs.