AUV Tri-TON 2: An intelligent platform for detailed survey of hydrothermal vent fields

Toshihiro Maki, Yoshiki Sato, Takumi Matsuda, Reyes Tatsuru Shiroku, Takashi Sakamaki

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The AUV Tri-TON 2 was built in 2013 under the governmental project to develop instruments to estimate ore reserves in underwater hydrothermal deposits, after the success of the prototype AUV Tri-TON [1]. The vehicle has two suites of imaging instruments looking forward and downward directions, in order to obtain dense, large-area 3D image of hydrothermal vent fields. The vehicle can follow rugged surface of hydrothermal vent fields at close range of less than 2.0 m. Although the vehicle is not equipped with an inertial navigation system (INS), the vehicle can estimate its position in real-time with a precision enough for rough photo-mosaicing, owing to the mutual acoustic positioning with a seafloor station. The vehicle has a strong ability of real-time path-planning to obtain a full-coverage 3D image of a rough, unknown seafloor in a single deployment [2]. The performance of the vehicle was verified through a series of sea experiments. At the first experiment, the vehicle succeeded in imaging seafloor with the area of 14 × 10 m. Then, the vehicle was deployed to hydrothermal vent field at Irabu Knoll in Okinawa Trough with the depth of 1,840m.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2014 IEEE/OES Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, AUV 2014
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9781479943449
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Mar 2015
Event2014 IEEE/OES Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, AUV 2014 - Oxford, United States
Duration: 6 Oct 20149 Oct 2014

Publication series

Name2014 IEEE/OES Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, AUV 2014

Conference

Conference2014 IEEE/OES Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, AUV 2014
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityOxford
Period6/10/149/10/14

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