The depths of Earth’s oceans remain one of the last frontiers of exploration on Earth, harboring vital resources and critical ecological systems. Traditionally, two types of uncrewed vehicles are used to explore the deep sea: remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), which are connected to a surface vessel via a communications and control tether and operated by pilots on-board; and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), which are untethered and can travel underwater without requiring operator intervention. Both vehicles are promising tools for helping humans collect underwater- data collection—and for transforming sectors, including marine research, offshore industries, environmental conservation and even national defense.

As the need to understand the ocean becomes more imperative in the wake of climate change, collecting data using ROVs and AUVs begins to present unique challenges. They are costly to build and maintain, and they often require large, specialized crews to deploy and retrieve. Their large size also brings flexibility and maneuverability challenges during missions. Specifically, ROVs are limited by the length of their tethers and the need for constant human supervision, impacting the frequency and scale of data collection and exploration.

Representing a paradigm shift

Having spotted this gap in the market, we developed Hydrus, a fully autonomous underwater robot that miniaturized multiple technologies to enable a drone-like experience for users underwater. This introduced the concept of micro-AUVs to the market.

Hydrus is transforming undersea research, inspection, detection and classification by making data capture simple and accessible. Weighing in at less than 7kg, it is effectively an all-in-one (untethered) autonomous solution ready for use directly out of the box. It can be launched and retrieved by a single person, alleviating the need for expensive survey vessels, watercraft, highly trained operators and divers. Its compactness naturally means simpler logistics, minimal complexity and reduced operational costs. This is a critical attribute, considering the rate of change in oceans is accelerating and more constant access to knowledge is required to help humans analyze the ocean’s condition.

Opening up ocean access

Taking into account the harsh environments underwater, Hydrus is equipped with advanced sonar, navigation and communications systems. This allows it to navigate tetherless and fully autonomously, utilizing object detection and avoidance to adjust missions in real time. It features a 4K 60 FPS camera with powerful lighting to ensure the highest quality video and photography. With an AI image-processing system, it dynamically balances camera settings and lighting to compensate for turbidity. In full turbidity environments where the camera can’t be used, Hydrus can still map using its sonar. Hydrus also allows 3D missions to be planned in minutes without specific knowledge or training.

Hydrus demonstrated such capabilities in a collaboration with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)—at the institute’s tropical marine test range, known as ReefWorks, on the northeastern coast of Australia. The task was to autonomously map a predefined area of the seabed to look for specific points of interest—which, in this scenario, were hidden objects intended to represent underwater mines.

Typically, exercises of this kind entail significant costs and logistical complexities. This was compounded by the notoriously difficult tropical waters in which Hydrus must operate in, as well as potential hazards introduced by the simulation. This mirrored a real-world search in a hazardous and unfamiliar environment.

Fortunately, Hydrus was purpose-built to address these concerns. Its compact size and autonomous capabilities allowed it to complete the mission quickly and easily. It was also designed with challenging waters in mind, rendering the whole package resilient to suspended sediment and complex water flow.

During the mission, Hydrus autonomously followed a predefined search pattern within a set perimeter in the water. While executing the search pattern, its camera successfully identified points of interest and captured high-accuracy imagery of the target objects.

From deploying to recovering Hydrus, the process took less than 30 minutes. The rapid turnaround time allowed the team to run the simulation two more times. By repeating the simulation, the team observed that between each operation, the mine-like objects had shifted positions on the seabed. This not only highlights the complex currents in tropical waters but also underscores the potential safety risks had the operation been conducted only once, as typically expected with traditional systems.

Looking into the future

A decade ago, underwater surveying and data collection was exclusively the domain of highly trained experts with complex expensive vehicles.

The rise of micro-AUVs is paving the way for a more efficient ocean economy.

With reduced costs, simplified logistics, and powerful capabilities, micro-AUVs are making ocean data more accessible to global communities and scaling up ocean exploration, delivering profound benefits to science, industry, the environment and society at large.

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved