Augmenting Capabilities of the RRS Sir David Attenborough through an Unmanned Surface Vehicle
Lead Research Organisation:
British Antarctic Survey
Department Name: Science Programmes
Abstract
Over the past 25 years, satellite observations have unequivocally demonstrated an accelerating flow of land-based ice into the oceans, now a major contributor to global sea level rise with severe implications for coastal communities worldwide, and knock-on implications for economic and social stability. In the next decade to century, our ability to predict sea level change is particularly limited by our lack of understanding of critical processes at the boundary between oceans and ice sheets.
This ice-ocean frontier is particularly challenging to characterize and investigate, as typical in situ observational techniques tend to be either limited in space to measurements in a few locations and in time, as sea-ice and a rapidly evolving glacial landscape precludes access over time periods exceeding a few days to weeks. The scarce available data indicates that concurrent observation of near-glacier ocean properties (heat and salt content, currents) and the associated evolution of the ice and seabed geometry is key to unlock the mysteries of ice-ocean interactions, and we need new tools to achieve such observations.
The UK's new polar research vessel, the RRS Sir David Attenborough (SDA) is a state-of-the-art ice capable research vessel for making novel measurements in remote locations. Yet the near-glacier and shallow water zone remains a challenging area to sample safely. This project proposes to enhance the SDA's scientific capability into this zone, by capitalising on the advent of robotic surface vehicles. Our vision is to make the SDA the mothership to a high-performance, mid-endurance, commercially available unmanned surface vehicle. This vehicle will enable independent, near-simultaneous observation of water column properties and glacier/seabed geometry over the space of a few days, transported to the remote location by the SDA. The ability to sample these shallow (or deep), near-glacier areas at speed, safely and over prolonged timescales (up to a week), facilitates high-resolution studies, providing a unique and transformative observational capability.
The asset will also work as a force multiplier, effectively acting as a second ship to carry out routine underway observations in open waters, reducing the carbon footprint of data collection. The system will be capable of collecting several essential ocean variables relayed in near-real time via satellite to global databases, thereby contributing to Southern and Global Ocean Observing Systems (SOOS/GOOS). In turn, these observations will be used to constrain and improve global climate models and reduce uncertainties in climate projections.
Collaboration with NOC's Marine Autonomous Research Systems group will further integration of UK's state-of-the-art facilities, exchanging knowledge in marine and polar autonomous platforms, ensuring cross-pollination of ideas, testing of sensors in various environments, and furthering UK's stature in the ultra-competitive domain of robotic autonomy.
This ice-ocean frontier is particularly challenging to characterize and investigate, as typical in situ observational techniques tend to be either limited in space to measurements in a few locations and in time, as sea-ice and a rapidly evolving glacial landscape precludes access over time periods exceeding a few days to weeks. The scarce available data indicates that concurrent observation of near-glacier ocean properties (heat and salt content, currents) and the associated evolution of the ice and seabed geometry is key to unlock the mysteries of ice-ocean interactions, and we need new tools to achieve such observations.
The UK's new polar research vessel, the RRS Sir David Attenborough (SDA) is a state-of-the-art ice capable research vessel for making novel measurements in remote locations. Yet the near-glacier and shallow water zone remains a challenging area to sample safely. This project proposes to enhance the SDA's scientific capability into this zone, by capitalising on the advent of robotic surface vehicles. Our vision is to make the SDA the mothership to a high-performance, mid-endurance, commercially available unmanned surface vehicle. This vehicle will enable independent, near-simultaneous observation of water column properties and glacier/seabed geometry over the space of a few days, transported to the remote location by the SDA. The ability to sample these shallow (or deep), near-glacier areas at speed, safely and over prolonged timescales (up to a week), facilitates high-resolution studies, providing a unique and transformative observational capability.
The asset will also work as a force multiplier, effectively acting as a second ship to carry out routine underway observations in open waters, reducing the carbon footprint of data collection. The system will be capable of collecting several essential ocean variables relayed in near-real time via satellite to global databases, thereby contributing to Southern and Global Ocean Observing Systems (SOOS/GOOS). In turn, these observations will be used to constrain and improve global climate models and reduce uncertainties in climate projections.
Collaboration with NOC's Marine Autonomous Research Systems group will further integration of UK's state-of-the-art facilities, exchanging knowledge in marine and polar autonomous platforms, ensuring cross-pollination of ideas, testing of sensors in various environments, and furthering UK's stature in the ultra-competitive domain of robotic autonomy.
Organisations
| Description | The asset is a large uncrewed surface vehicle with an autonomy of 6 days at 7knots in full function and 14 days maximum with lowered capabilities. It is fully equipped with sensors to continuously measure seabed and/or ice wall geometries at distances up to or greater than 1000 m away, ocean current velocity profiles from the surface to 350m depth, and meteorological variables like temperature and wind. It is also equipped with a remotely deployable profiling package to measure temperature and salinity down to 700m depth. This autonomous platform will be either piloted from a remote station (e.g. the Sir David Attenborough or a base) using broad band radio or satellite communication, or set on predetermined course and simple mission plans. It will also have collision avoidance systems in place to avoid impact with other assets and moving platforms (e.g. ships, ice flows and icebergs). Finally, it will be equipped with a fully automatized launch and recovery system to greatly facilitate usage and minimize downtime. The choice was made to acquire the Drix platform by iXblue (https://www.ixblue.com/products/drix), as it was by far the most competitive bid we received. It also seems to be by far the most capable platform to date for remote operations and ocean surveys. A typical usage case for Antarctic work will be working near and around vertical glacial ice faces, which are out of reach for traditional sampling methods, but we envision other usage involving seabed mapping as a demultiplier of the RVIB Sir David Attenborough, fish counting, ecological survey, etc. |
| Exploitation Route | The asset is now delivered and in the UK (UK delivery March 16th 2023). This will be followed by a period of testing, which we are trying to find funding for using typical NERC Science funding routes and more atypical ones involving missions in UK coastal waters. Once we are confident about our ability to use the platform (within 6-12 months to a year from now, this platform is very complex and requires significant training for operations), it will be made available to the wider community. The platform will be made accessible to the wider community through BAS Antarctic logistics, for which a clear route to request support and prioritising mechanisms for users are established. There is interest in the Defence sector to understand how useful this asset could be in the future as well. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Environment |
| Title | a large autonomous surface vehicle for polar explorations |
| Description | The asset is a large uncrewed surface vehicle with an autonomy of 6 days at 7knots in full function and 14 days maximum with lowered capabilities. It is fully equipped with sensors to continuously measure seabed and/or ice wall geometries at distances up to or greater than 1000 m away, ocean current velocity profiles from the surface to 350m depth, and meteorological variables like temperature and wind. It is also equipped with a remotely deployable profiling package to measure temperature and salinity down to 700m depth. This autonomous platform will be either piloted from a remote station (e.g. the Sir David Attenborough or a base) using broad band radio or satellite communication, or set on predetermined course and simple mission plans. It will also have collision avoidance systems in place to avoid impact with other assets and moving platforms (e.g. ships, ice flows and icebergs). Finally, it will be equipped with a fully automatized launch and recovery system to greatly facilitate usage and minimize downtime. The choice was made to acquire the Drix platform by iXblue (https://www.ixblue.com/products/drix), as it was by far the most competitive bid we received. It also seems to be by far the most capable platform to date for remote operations and ocean surveys. A typical usage case for Antarctic work will be working near and around vertical glacial ice faces, which are out of reach for traditional sampling methods, but we envision other usage involving seabed mapping as a demultiplier of the RVIB Sir David Attenborough, fish counting, ecological survey, etc. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Thsi new tool will pave the way for new discoveries in polar and more temperate seas. |