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

200至1 500米深的海洋中层区域是物理过程、生物环境和动物群落的复杂混合体的家园，它们在一系列时空尺度上相互作用。由于使用船载仪器、声学勘测、遥控和拖曳车辆系统收集的测量数据的固有局限性和复杂性，对中层的取样仍然很差。 该项目将开发一种新型的自动机器人仪器，以收集物理，视觉和声学数据，为100微米至10厘米大小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，加上一个非破坏性的推进系统和新系统的操作灵活性，将解决我们对海洋中层水域生态的理解中的关键知识差距。该飞行器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。 该项目还将为罗得岛大学、斯托尼布鲁克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。 公众宣传将通过与威廉·M.小戴维斯职业和技术高中，罗得岛教师在海上计划和BIOS中大西洋机器人教育（海洋）计划。这些活动将发展支持STEM教育和下一代科学标准的活动。拟议的仪器将是一个隐形垂直剖面飞行器。 传感器套件将包括可操纵的多频（38/70/200 kHz）宽带声学、立体低光成像、水下视觉剖面仪（UVP 6）以及温度、盐度、氧气、叶绿素、浊度、光束衰减和光合有效辐射（PAR）等环境传感器。 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产生最小的干扰，以减少已知会使来自网拖和推进器动力车辆的观测产生偏差的回避行为。 弱光相机将使分类文件和较大的生物体和凝胶状动物的大小歧视没有定量捕获网拖。同时声学和环境数据将提供更完整的栖息地信息比可能与船上系统单独。 有了这些能力，该仪器将占据一个未填补的生态位，在中层的传感。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

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 mid-water 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.