ENDURUNS: An Integrated and Flexible Approach for Seabed Survey Through Autonomous Mobile Vehicles

• Published in: Journal of marine science and engineering Vol. 8; no. 9; p. 633
• Main Authors: Marini, Simone, Gjeci, Nikolla, Govindaraj, Shashank, But, Alexandru, Sportich, Benjamin, Ottaviani, Ennio, Márquez, Fausto Pedro García, Bernalte Sanchez, Pedro Jose, Pedersen, Jonas, Clausen, Casper Vetke, Madricardo, Fantina, Foglini, Fedeirca, Bonofiglio, Federico, Barbieri, Laura, Antonini, Massimiliano, Montenegro Camacho, Yeidy Sorani, Weiss, Peter, Nowak, Kathrin, Peer, Makthoum, Gobert, Thibaud, Turetta, Alessio, Chatzidouros, Elias, Lee, Dongik, Zarras, Dimitris, Steriotis, Theodore, Charalambopoulou, Georgia, Yamas, Thanos, Papaelias, Mayorkinos
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.09.2020
• Subjects: Algorithms; autonomous ocean monitoring; Autonomous underwater vehicles; Autonomy; Batteries; Central processing units; Coastal zone; Communication; Compression; CPUs; Data acquisition; Data analysis; Data compression; Fuel cells; Gliders; habitat mapping; Hybrid vehicles; Hydrocarbons; Hydrogen fuels; Infrastructure; Lithium-ion batteries; Natural resources; Observatories; Ocean floor; Oceans; Photovoltaics; Polls & surveys; Rechargeable batteries; Remotely piloted vehicles; Satellite communication; Satellite communications; seabed survey; Surface vehicles; Surveying; Thrusters; Underwater vehicles; unmanned surface vehicles; Unmanned vehicles; Vehicles; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 2077-1312; 2077-1312
• DOI: 10.3390/jmse8090633

The oceans cover more than two-thirds of the planet, representing the vastest part of natural resources. Nevertheless, only a fraction of the ocean depths has been explored. Within this context, this article presents the H2020 ENDURUNS project that describes a novel scientific and technological approach for prolonged underwater autonomous operations of seabed survey activities, either in the deep ocean or in coastal areas. The proposed approach combines a hybrid Autonomous Underwater Vehicle capable of moving using either thrusters or as a sea glider, combined with an Unmanned Surface Vehicle equipped with satellite communication facilities for interaction with a land station. Both vehicles are equipped with energy packs that combine hydrogen fuel cells and Li-ion batteries to provide extended duration of the survey operations. The Unmanned Surface Vehicle employs photovoltaic panels to increase the autonomy of the vehicle. Since these missions generate a large amount of data, both vehicles are equipped with onboard Central Processing units capable of executing data analysis and compression algorithms for the semantic classification and transmission of the acquired data.