Boaty McBoatface - one of the National Oceanography Centres autosubs - a long range autonomous vehicle that can travel for many kilometres and to great depths underwater, gathering scientific data. (Photo: National Oceanography Centre)
Nelson Mandela University has been chosen by the IIOE-2 to be the hub for marine robotics in a Western Indian Ocean (WIO)-wide research network.
In March 2019 Nelson Mandela University’s Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology (EBEIT) launched its transdisciplinary Marine Robotics Unit (MRU). The MRU’s engineering team is headed by Akshay Lakhani, Group Specialist: Systems and Control at eNtsa, a research and innovation hub within the faculty.
“Our oceanographic researchers need robotic technologies to collect in situ ocean data both in the coastal and offshore regions, and we need to develop innovative ways to assist robotic platforms to navigate in unknown and difficult regional ocean environments,” Lakhani explains.
Akshay Lakhani
“Current methods of collecting ocean sciences data using conventional ships, amongst other methods, are very expensive and few developing countries have the resources to own and operate research vessels. Marine robotics offer a much needed solution as they are relatively inexpensive and easy to deploy, allowing our ocean scientists and research units to operate at a world-class level.”
Marine robots for our oceans
“The MRU is collaborating with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway https://folk.ntnu.no/assor/ in the development of new marine robotics and deployment systems, specifically designed for our oceans,” says Lakhani. “This includes aerial platforms (i.e. drones), specialised sensor development, and optimised data-capturing, storage and sharing in support of ocean sciences.”
The MRU will also manage the deployment and operation of existing robotics such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), subsurface ocean gliders, surface wave gliders and ARGO floats. These platforms can be deployed from small boats and remain at sea for anything from days to months. The MRU will host and maintain this equipment with dedicated Nelson Mandela University engineers, technologists and technicians.
For more information: www.ecosub.uk, www.planet-ocean.co.uk
Democratising Marine Research
Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are essentially small unmanned robot submarines used for monitoring and research. AUVs are equipped with powerful electronics and artificial intelligence to independently collect data using their on-board sensors.
There are a wide range of AUVs but they are expensive, ranging from £100K to £2M. “As battery and sensor technology, and electronic equipment got smaller, we saw an opening for smaller, far more affordable versions of this technology,” says Terry Sloane, the co-owner and managing director of Planet Ocean Ltd which developed ecoSUB. “Our mission is to democratise the use of AUV technology because at the moment it is only available to wealthy institutions and we want to change this.
“We applied for and won UK government funding and developed the ecoSUB, which enables the use of AUV technology from a beach or jetty or from small boats. You can do excellent science and the benefit is they are very easy to use and one-tenth of theprice. The half-a-metre long ecoSUB is around £10 000 and the one metre version is about £20 000.”
Larger AUVs can carry several sensors, whereas the ecoSUBs carry one or two sensors and scientists use a ‘shoal’ of them, each with different sensors to monitor anything from the salinity and dissolved oxygen in the water to the chemistry, pH, zooplankton, phytoplankton and sound.
The ecoSUBs can stay in the water from a few hours to two days, and we are aiming for 100 and 200 km for the smaller and larger ecoSUBs respectively. The smaller ecoSUB currently goes down to 500m – the depth of most continental shelves – and the larger one can go down to 2500m.