{"id":178844,"date":"2022-12-07T14:21:16","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T19:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/?p=178844"},"modified":"2022-12-07T14:21:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T19:21:16","slug":"orchestration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/publications\/aboard-gso\/orchestration\/","title":{"rendered":"Orchestration"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORCHESTRATION<\/h1>

This summer, science teams from partner institutions of the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute (OECI) deployed three autonomous vehicles at once, then tested the ability of the robots to work in concert.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

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By Hugh Markey; photos courtesy of Ocean Exploration Trust<\/h4>\n
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Scientists, researchers and engineers aboard exploration vessel (E\/V) Nautilus<\/em> successfully dem\u00adonstrated that autonomous uncrewed systems can work collabor\u00adatively during a scientific mission. This latest development in technologies and methods will prove to be a \u201cforce-multiplier\u201d for future ocean exploration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Expedition leader Jason Fahy from URI\u2019s GSO discussed the reasons behind the development of this collaborative approach. \u201cThe primary driving force behind this work is to conduct more exploration with a limited amount of resources. Doing multiple things simultaneously results in more and richer data being collected. Instead of conducting three independent operations, each taking up to a day, we can now simultaneously deploy these systems, allowing for a significant time savings but also synchronizing the timing of our data collection. This snapshot in time of what\u2019s happening throughout the oceans depth is extremely powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhere we\u2019re going in the future is to automate that process by using artificial intelligence and machine learning to essentially give more autonomy to the robots to decide what\u2019s important.\u201d<\/blockquote>Jason Fahy, Associate Director, OECI<\/cite><\/div><\/section>\n

OECI Executive Director Adam Soule from GSO oversaw the process and noted the cooperative spirit that ran through the whole process. \u201cThe cooperative institute is in its third year, and it works with federal agencies, NOAA, and academic partners. All of these are members of the partnership. There is also cooperation among the operations teams for these vehicles, which is beneficial. It\u2019s exciting to see the vehicles cooperate with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fahy explains the ideal operation they hoped for. \u201cWe have an autonomous surface vessel mapping the sea floor and collecting oceanographic information; at the same time, a very quiet autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) taking observations hundreds of meters below the surface; and finally another AUV up to 5000 meters below collecting samples and capturing imagery of the seafloor. Not only are we streaming all this exploration over the internet, but the public and scientific community can now have a glimpse of what\u2019s happening throughout the water column at the exact same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preparation for the cruise was complex, and even mundane issues needed to be worked out prior to the cruise. \u201cThere are so many different challenges,\u201d Soule said. \u201cOne logistical challenge is that ships have a limited number of berths. And each one of these vehicles has a team of five to ten people. Quickly, you realize that once you have all these vehicles on board, you\u2019re running out of space for the people that operate them. We\u2019re trying to use our satellite connection to shore to take some of the engineering and operational expertise off the ship so that we can still operate these multiple vehicle systems.\u201d As it stood, the expedition carried 45 people aboard, from graduate students to professional engineers to the ship\u2019s crew.<\/p>\n

This leap ahead in ocean exploration was due to the ongoing support of NOAA Ocean Exploration. \u201cNOAA has the vision to not only fund ocean exploration but the development of the next generation tools and operational methods,\u201d Fahy said.<\/p>\n