This paper describes and presents preliminary experimental results from a novel prototype energy scavenging system installed in a model 2m cylindrical Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The system, which is based on control moment gyroscope (CMG) principles, utilises the gyroscopic response of a gimballed flywheel mounted within an AUV body to generate energy from the wave induced rotational ...

Given the diversity and spatio-temporal scales of dynamic coastal processes, sampling is a challenging task for oceanographers. To meet this challenge new robotic platforms such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) are being increasingly used. For effective water sampling during a mission an AUV should be adaptive to its environment, which requires it to be able to identify these dynamic and ...

This paper describes a novel optimum path planning strategy for long duration AUV operations in environments with time-varying ocean currents. These currents can exceed the maximum achievable speed of the AUV, as well as temporally expose obstacles. In contrast to most other path planning strategies, paths have to be defined in time as well as space. The solution described here exploits ocean c...

Currently, research is underway at the Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech), to investigate the environmental impacts of oil development in the Prudhoe Bay region of the Beaufort Sea, along Alaska’s northern coast. Of particular interest are the impacts of construction of offshore gravel islands used for oil drilling and production. Construction of these islands may contribute to an i...

Use of a REMUS-100 AUV to obtain hydrographic observations beneath coastal sea ice offshore of Barrow, Alaska is described. The work is motivated by the desire to obtain crossshore hydrographic transects that would provide estimates of the transport of relatively dense, salty water from the Chukchi Sea to the Arctic Ocean in winter. The horizontal scales (~10 km), maximum water depths (~100 m) ...

Marine Autonomous Vehicles, either Surface (ASV) or Underwater (AUV) are becoming the kingpin for ocean research and sea exploration. Long term and high persistence are highly desirable characteristics for adding to these autonomous platforms. The possibility of performing adequate tasks by using low cost underwater vehicles could multiply the number of agents in the area and therefore, providi...

The MIT AUV Lab, in association with Bluefin Robotics, has undertaken the task of designing a new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), a holonomic hover-capable robot capable of performing missions where an inspection capability similar to that of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is the primary goal. Some shortcomings of the most common torpedo-like AUV have become clear, as interest has incre...

Due to the receding sea-ice extent in the Arctic, and the potentially large undiscovered petroleum resources present north of the Arctic circle, offshore activities in ice-infested waters are increasing. Due to the presence of drifting sea-ice and icebergs, ice management (IM) becomes an important part of the offshore operation, and an important part of an IM system is the ability to reliably m...

This work introduces a new method to calculate the water velocity components of a turbulent water column in the x, y, and z directions using Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) motion response (referred to as the ‘WVAM method’). The water column velocities were determined by calculating the difference between the motion responses of the vehicle in calm and turbulent water environments. The velo...