An Autonomous Self-Mooring Vehicle for Littoral & Coastal Observations

A new type of surface vehicle/buoy is needed for marine biological studies, physical oceanography, environmental impact assessment and integrated marine environment management. It is proposed within this document to present the development of an autonomous self-mooring vehicle (ASMV) that collects meteorological, acoustic, and physical data, while simultaneously obtains water samples for chemical analysis through mass-spectrum analysis from littoral and estuary waters. The ASMV is programmed to use and analyze the oceanographic and meteorological data in its guidance system to track and analyze a specific phenomenon. During the project several scientific surveys will be performed to test the abilities of the vehicle. For example, the assessment of the biodiversity of organisms (e.g., phytoplankton) that live at a specific region will be conducted. All operations will be completely autonomous with the exception of the high level communication between the vehicle and the operations center. The vehicle houses commercial and student designed measurement units containing instruments such as multi-chemistry analyzer, conductivity, temperature, depth gages, and a fluorimeter that detects various chemicals such as chlorophyll, rhodamine, and fluorescein.