Visual and Autonomous Survey of Hydrothermal Vents Using a Hovering‐Type AUV: Launching Hobalin Into the Western Offshore of Kumejima Island

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have become promising tools for marine geological surveys to collect information such as the topography of the seafloor and the location of hydrothermal plumes. Visual surveys and sampling are mainly conducted using human‐occupied vehicles or remotely operated v...

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Published inGeochemistry, geophysics, geosystems : G3 Vol. 20; no. 12; pp. 6234 - 6243
Main Authors Okamoto, Akihiro, Seta, Takahiro, Sasano, Masahiko, Inoue, Shunji, Ura, Tamaki
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.12.2019
Subjects
Autonomous underwater vehicles
Cameras
Geological surveys
Hydrothermal deposits
Hydrothermal springs
Lasers
Low altitude
Navigation
Ocean floor
Offshore
Plumes
Sampling
Surveying
Underwater exploration
Underwater vehicles
Unmanned vehicles
Vehicles
Visual observation
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Summary:Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have become promising tools for marine geological surveys to collect information such as the topography of the seafloor and the location of hydrothermal plumes. Visual surveys and sampling are mainly conducted using human‐occupied vehicles or remotely operated vehicles. To obtain detailed visual data more efficiently, a hovering‐type AUV (Hobalin), which has the novel ability to autonomously navigate within a vent field, was developed to explore hydrothermal deposits. This vehicle was deployed in an active hydrothermal vent field located in the western offshore of Kumejima Island at a depth of approximately 1,400 m. Visual observations were performed with submillimeter image resolution via low‐altitude navigation using still cameras. Moreover, a height estimation method for chimney structures was proposed utilizing an obstacle avoidance system composed of a sheet laser and a forward‐looking camera with hovering maneuver capability. It was determined that hovering‐type AUVs can facilitate the effective survey of hydrothermal vents and the acquired data can be utilized for subsequent sampling by human‐occupied vehicles and remotely operated vehicles. Key Points A hovering‐type AUV was deployed in an active hydrothermal vent field in the mid‐Okinawa Trough Visual observation was performed with submillimeter image resolution via low‐altitude navigation of the AUV A height estimation method for chimney structure utilizing an obstacle avoidance system was proposed
ISSN:1525-2027
1525-2027
DOI:10.1029/2019GC008406