Harbor Branch Team Tests New Bluefin Technology
The Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research and Technology at FAU Harbor Branch is working to adapt a new technology for benthic mapping capability.
The Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research and Technology at FAU Harbor Branch (Project PIs: Fraser Dalgleish, Ph.D.; Anni Dalgleish, Ph.D.; Bing Ouyang, Ph.D.; Mingshun Jiang, Ph.D; along with collaborators Aleck Wang, Ph.D., Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Bluefin Robotics) is working to adapt a new technology for benthic mapping capability: the Bluefin U-4000, an innovative ROV/AUV hybrid that can operate both in a conventional fully autonomous mode and a supervised autonomy mode using a fiber optic tether. The team, along with John Reed, Ph.D., chief scientist for the cruise, recently conducted dives with the new technology and other traditional instruments off of Â̲èÖ±²¥'s east coast from nearshore to mid-shelf to Oculina reefs.
The long-term goals of this work are to establish a southeast U.S. autonomous vehicle test bed, to develop an underwater autonomous platform and a sensing package that can effectively survey and monitor critical deep coral habits, and to understand the health and ecosystem dynamics of deep corals in a warming and more acidic ocean.
The project is sponsored by the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research and the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.
-FAU-
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