Instrumentation
Details of the AUV
The University of Sydney’s Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) is leading the IMOS AUV Facility and has an ocean going Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) called Sirius capable of undertaking high resolution survey work. This platform is a modified version of a mid-size robotic vehicle called Seabed built at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The submersible is equipped with a full suite of oceanographic instruments, including a high resolution stereo camera pair and strobes, a multibeam sonar, depth and conductivity/temperature sensors, Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) including a compass with integrated roll and pitch sensors, Ultra Short Baseline Acoustic Positioning System (USBL) and forward looking obstacle avoidance sonar. As part of IMOS, the vehicle will be enhanced with a Wetlabs Eco Puck, measuring chlorophyll-a, CDOM and scattering (red), and an Aanderaa Optode, measuring dissolved oxygen concentrations. Requests for additional sensor payloads will be considered as part of this application process and may be supported with IMOS funds allocated for sensor acquisition.

- The AUV during a deployment on the Great Barrier Reef, Qld.
Vehicle Specifications
Depth Rating | 700m | |
Size | 2.0m(L)x1.5m(H)x1.5m(W) | |
Mass | 200kg | |
Maximum Speed | 1.0 m/s | |
Batteries | 1.6 kWh Li-ion pack | |
Propulsion | 3x150W brushless DC thrusters |
Navigation
Attitude/Heading |
| Tilt(±0.5°), Compass(±2°) |
Depth | Paroscientific pressure sensor (0.01%) | |
Velocity |
| RDI Workshorse Navigator DVL(1-2mm/s) |
Altitude |
| RDI Workshorse Navigator |
USBL |
| TrackLink 1500HA (0.2m range, 0.25°) |
GPS |
| u-blox receiver board |
Optical Sensing
Cameras |
| 2 x Prosilica 12 bit 1360x1024 CCD, setero baseline 75mm |
Lighting |
| 2 x 200 Ws strobes (max 15Hz) |
Separation |
| ~1m between cameras and lights |
Acoustic Sensing
Multibeam sonar |
| Imagenex 837 DeltaT Profiling, 260kHz |
Imaging sonar |
| Tritech SeaKing (available on request) |
Obstacle avoidance |
| Imagenex 852 Echo sounder |
Other Sensors
CT |
| Seabird 37SBI |
Fluorometers |
| Wetlabs Ecopuck - chlorophyl-a, CDOM, scattering (r) |
Communications
RF Modem |
| Freewave HTPlus 900MHz radio with integral Wifi |
Acoustic Modem |
| Tracklink USBL |
