Enabling Autonomous Management of Drifting Underwater Floats with an ASV

Coastal float arrays present a new way to map tidal currents, larval transport, and benthic composition, but their deployment and recovery are labor-intensive and require supervisory vessels. This study introduces the Float Autonomous Deployment and Recovery (FADR) system, a preliminary step in enabling autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) to manage small arrays of microFloats in coastal waters. The ASV Jonesy was outfitted with the FADR system and tested in Sequim Bay, WA, demonstrating automated microFloat deployment within 5 meters of target drop locations. Incremental developments supporting the recovery process include bathymetry-aware path-generation and a machine-vision camera for near-field float detection and tracking during the recovery process. These initial trials build confidence in this heterogeneous robotic sampling method, though further work is needed including improved navigation algorithms and a full mechatronic recovery subsystem to retrieve the float from the water.