Harbor Branch Team Tests New Bluefin Technology

The Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research and Technology at FAU Harbor Branch is working to adapt a new technology for benthic mapping capability.

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The Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research and Technology at FAU Harbor Branch (Project PIs: Fraser Dalgleish, Ph.D.; Anni Dalgleish, Ph.D.; Bing Ouyang, Ph.D.; Mingshun Jiang, Ph.D; along with collaborators Aleck Wang, Ph.D., Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Bluefin Robotics) is working to adapt a new technology for benthic mapping capability: the Bluefin U-4000, an innovative ROV/AUV hybrid that can operate both in a conventional fully autonomous mode and a supervised autonomy mode using a fiber optic tether. The team, along with John Reed, Ph.D., chief scientist for the cruise, recently conducted dives with the new technology and other traditional instruments off of Florida's east coast from nearshore to mid-shelf to Oculina reefs.

The long-term goals of this work are to establish a southeast U.S. autonomous vehicle test bed, to develop an underwater autonomous platform and a sensing package that can effectively survey and monitor critical deep coral habits, and to understand the health and ecosystem dynamics of deep corals in a warming and more acidic ocean.

The project is sponsored by the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research and the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.

-FAU-

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