AUE: An Autonomous Float for Monitoring the Upper Water Column

A new autonomous underwater vehicle for exploring the upper water column has been developed. The Autonomous Underwater Explorer (AUE) is a 25 cm diameter sphere whose mission is to monitor currents in the upper 100 m of the ocean via either underwater acoustic tracking or by providing a (lat, lon) fix via GPS after surfacing. Equipped with both temperature and depth sensors the float is capable of tracking both isotherms and isobars by adjusting its density via a piston that changes the volume of the vehicle. Equipped with an acoustic modem we envision fleets of such systems tracking water parcels in coastal regions while reporting their positions to each other and a surface ship in real time. Equipped with more advanced sensors such as fluorometers, nutrient sensors, or other miniature advanced devices, such small autonomous systems have the promise to provide a more synoptic view of the water column than heretofore possible.