Thank you to all RAUV participants!
Workshop on Remotely Deployed, Interactive, Deep Ocean Robotic Vehicles: “RESIDENT-AUVs”
May 9-11, 2018
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Persistent, resident robotics platforms have the potential to revolutionize how we work in the ocean. We invite you to participate in an NSF/industry-sponsored workshop, bringing together prospective science users of Resident AUVs (R-AUVs) with engineers, roboticists and computer scientists, to explore the role R-AUVs will play in future ocean science and exploration.
Objectives:
- Exploring the scientific/operational use cases best served by R-AUVs;
- Examining how adaptable, maneuverable systems with sustained remote presence, can transform our interactions with a host of ocean environments;
- Crafting visions of how robotic systems can address critical science issues; and,
- Investigating commonalities amongst scientific, industrial, commercial and military applications to drive shared development and reduced cost.
Our focus lies on the application of R-AUV for scientific inquiry, particularly in the context of the growing number of permanent subsea observatories. We will also consider the role of R-AUV across ocean applications, including opportunities in remote locations, from methane hydrate deposits, to polar regions, to deep sea mining, to oil and gas producing infrastructure and offshore wind farms, to strategic defense installations. Renewable offshore energy-harvesting devices are poised to deliver flexible power & communication nodes in hard-to-reach locations without the potentially-prohibitive cost of cabled land links, enabling these applications.
As one conceptual test-bed, we will explore the potential of the NSF-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative Cabled Array off the coasts of Washington and Oregon, as a readily available power-communications infrastructure for hosting R-AUV systems. The OOI Regional Cabled Array on Axial Volcano provides a clear opportunity to use resident, mobile, interactive systems to study subsea vulcanism in situ when Axial next erupts, as it has 3 times in the last 2 decades.
Reviewing multiple use cases will illuminate common features, system capabilities, and technology gaps that must be addressed for successful and affordable R-AUV operations in a host of novel situations.
We sincerely hope that you can join us in May. If you are interested in participating, please respond to this email and we will include you in future workshop correspondence. If you have colleagues who you believe would be interested in participating, please forward this announcement or send us their names and we will be sure to include them in future workshop communications.
Sincerely,
The R-AUV Organizing Team
rauv@uw.edu
