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