The Ocean Technology Test Bed - From concept to operation

The Ocean Technology Test Bed (OTTB) is a multi-functional underwater test facility developed by the Ocean Technology Lab (OTL) at the University of Victoria to serve military, academia, government and industry. The OTTB is located off the coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. It resides in 80m of water and covers 2-square kilometers of the seafloor A seafloor cable provides power and communication to a recoverable platform. The platform sits inside of an Integrated cabled long baseline Acoustic System (IAS), which provides precision tracking and acoustic communication throughout the OTTB arena. The facility has the tools researchers require to develop new underwater technologies, such as: oceanographic sensors, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs); underwater AUV docking systems; guidance, navigation and control algorithms; multiple vehicle cooperation; acoustic communication; and autonomous remote sensors. The OTTB project is a satellite off of the Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea (VENUS) observatory in Saanich Inlet, and was originally proposed as an engineering laboratory to facilitate the development and testing of new underwater technology for use on cabled ocean observatories, and as a proving ground for demonstrating the suitability of existing technology for long term deployments in remote locations. The facility has subsequently come to fill a broader role, serving as a test facility for surveying, security and other ocean sensing applications. The first phase of the OTTB installation has been completed and operational testing is now underway. This document describes the development and installation of this unique facility and presents case studies for the first few experiments to capitalize on the capabilities of the OTTB.