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常规冰下检查、取样和仪器操作的有效能力，无论是在冰-海界面、冰覆盖海洋的水柱还是在底层高纬度冰架和沿海接地线。此外，美国海洋学界还缺乏适当的远程操作车辆（Remote Operated Vehicle）能力，这些能力可以从典型的全球级支援船上定期部署。如果他们要与实质性的多学科研究团队一起在同一艘船上住宿，这尤其具有挑战性。极地海洋和冰覆盖的海洋带来了额外的挑战。常规系留ROV的位置可能受到限制，因为部署ROV的抗冰研究船可能被迫在几个小时内随着迁移的冰漂移1公里的距离，同时进行侧边操作。因此，这种遥控潜水器可能无法停留在特定感兴趣的位置，也无法系统地调查海底的目标部分，或者出于其他关键科学需要，一个由海洋学工程师和科学家组成的多机构团队将使用这种轻质纤维，最近WHOI深潜公司率先采用了光系绳和光调制解调器技术，为这两个障碍提供解决方案。具体而言，它寻求开发一种新的极地遥控水下航行器，暂时称为PROV，能够部署在传统上被认为无法进入的极地（包括冰层覆盖的）海洋区域，但厚冰层的具体情况除外，可以从为穿冰部署而设计的航行器和仪器进入。在极地海洋中，该工具将在沿海海底，中层水和冰-海边界发挥独特的研究作用，包括研究北极冰盖下的热流，调查格陵兰岛和南极冰盖终端冰川出口下的融化，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提供独特的能力，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引人注目的紧急研究。

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.