Design of a New Wire Flying Vehicle for Deep Water Profiling

投资促进机构建议完成新车辆概念的设计可行性研究和比例模型测试阶段，以便在与船舶拖曳组件结合使用时，能够在深海中进行更高分辨率的剖面分析。拟建的飞行器将利用翼翼产生的升力，以受控的方式在拖曳的钢丝上上下滑动。翼翼将提供一种新的低功率推进方法，它利用金属丝在水中移动的自由流动速度。在全尺寸车辆中，由小型微处理器、深度传感器和电机执行器组成的电池供电的电子组件将以闭环方式控制箔片角度，以实现所需的深度或深度剖面。飞行器内的有效载荷舱将容纳各种海洋水柱传感器。这样的工具将提供两方面的主要好处。对这一新概念的初步评估表明，绳索飞行器可以在很大的操作范围内实现1：1或更大的滑翔比。这将在深水中提供比目前浅水中起伏的拖曳物体更高的水平分辨率。此外，该系统将与任何拖曳仪器组合一起使用，并产生仅靠拖曳机构无法获得的补充数据集。更广泛的影响拟议中的继续开发绳索飞行剖面仪可能会使海洋学中的许多不同学科受益，而不受地理区域的影响。最切实的影响可能是加深对深海混合和诸如次中尺度涡旋等小特征的了解，这些小特征可在物质运输中发挥主要作用。这些影响将通过更好地理解混合和小规模动态，直接和显著地影响我们运行全球模型的能力，包括用于预测气候变化影响的模型。这本身就包含了广泛而显著的社会效益。没有具体提到外联活动，但无论如何，在技术开发项目的背景下，这些活动都可能是困难的。一名研究生和几名本科生将获得工程和海洋仪器使用方面的经验。

The PIs propose to complete a design feasibility study and the scale model testing phase for a new vehicle concept to enable higher resolution profiling in the deep ocean when used in conjunction with a ship-towed package. The proposed vehicle will slide up and down a towed wire in a controlled manner using the lift created by wing foils. Wing foils will provide a novel low power method of propulsion that utilizes the free stream velocity of the wire moving through the water. In the full size vehicle a battery powered electronics package consisting of a small microprocessor, depth sensor and motor actuator will control the foil angle in a closed loop fashion to achieve a desired depth or depth profile. A payload bay within the vehicle will accommodate a variety of oceanographic water column sensors. The main benefits such a vehicle will provide are two fold. Preliminary evaluation of this new concept suggests the wire flying vehicle could achieve glide ratios of one-to-one or greater over a wide operating range of tow configurations. This would provide greater horizontal resolution in deep water than is currently possible with undulated towed bodies in shallow water. Additionally, this system would be used in conjunction with any towed instrument package and produce a complementary data set that could not be obtained by the tow body alone. Broader ImpactsThe proposed continued development of a wire flying profiler can potentially benefit many different disciplines throughout oceanography, independently of geographical area. The most tangible impacts are likely to be increased understanding of deep ocean mixing and of small features such as submesoscale eddies that can play major roles in material transport. These impacts will directly and significantly impact, through improved understanding of mixing and small-scale dynamics, our ability to run global models including those used for prediction of climate change impacts. This in itself comprises a broad and significant societal benefit. Outreach activities are not specifically mentioned but are likely, in any case, to be difficult within the context of a technological development project. One graduate student, and several undergraduate students, will gain experience in engineering and use of oceanographic instrumentation.