Abstract

For 15 years the Autosub range of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), designed and built at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, have been exploring of the world’s oceans. Highlights have been: mapping under Arctic sea ice near Greenland in 2004, exploring underneath the 60 km ice tongue of the Pine Island Glacier in the Antarctic in 2009, and helping to discover the world’s deepest and hottest known hydrothermal vent site, 5 km down, in the Caribbean sea. More recently, the Autosub6000 AUV has carried out detailed sonar and photographic mapping of seabed habitats in the inhospitable seas near Rockall and the Darwin cold water coral mounds, North of Scotland. In the talk, I shall describe these campaigns, the practical and technical issues, and how things can go horribly wrong. I’ll also talk about our future plans with a new, very long range Autosub, and the concept of air launched AUVs.

Steve McPhail, CENG , MIET, heads the Autonomous Systems group at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK, and leads the Autosub6000 and Autosub Long Range AUV projects. His main specialization is the navigation and control of AUVs. He has extensive experience of leading the technical team for AUV test and science cruises in locations from polar seas to the tropics.