A New Navy Deep-Water Oceanographic Survey Vehicle: the Naval Oceanographic Office's Subsurface Autonomous Mapping System (SAMS)

The Subsurface Autonomous Mapping System (SAMS) is a full-ocean-depth (6000-meter) autonomous vehicle with integrated physical oceanography and bottommapping sensors. Developed for the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ocean Systems Laboratory, SAMS is a new NAVOCEANO capability for deep-sea oceanographic data collection. SAMS is equipped with a CTD, an optical backscatter sensor, an ADCP, and a side-scan sonar. The SAMS vehicle is designed to conduct two types of missions: independent physical oceanographic data collections and sidescan sonar bottom mapping surveys. SAMS can collect 10-12 hours of side-scan and oceanographic data or up to 16 hours of oceanographic data with the side-scan sonar disabled. At a cruising speed of 4 knots, the vehicle can survey more than 40 nmi during mapping missions and nearly 65 nmi during oceanography missions. The range of the vehicle, its ability to conduct preprogrammed and redirected missions, and its multipurpose sensor suite allow NAVOCEANO to conduct large-scale, deep-water oceanographic and ocean bottom feature exploration with greater efficiency and flexibility.