Exploration of the Deep Ocean With Teams of Long-Endurance Ocean Robots

In July/August 2022, a project team successfully demonstrated the ability to use coordinated uncrewed systems for long-range and long-endurance ocean exploration without a support ship and with advanced near-seafloor navigation capabilities. The demonstration featured a Wave Glider (an uncrewed surface vessel) and a Seaglider (a type of autonomous underwater vehicle) working in tandem.

With support from the National Science Foundation, the team developed a navigation system that enables low-power underwater vehicles, like Seagliders, to locate themselves relative to a surface vehicle, like Wave Gliders, whose geographic position is known. Precise navigation information enables scientists to return to key sites of interest identified by the uncrewed systems for more detailed exploration. NOAA Ocean Exploration’s support provided the opportunity for the team to test and demonstrate their novel capability.

Three field trials led up to the final demonstration. In 2019, the team tested their navigation system on remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer in the New York Bight during a technology demonstration on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. The other two trials tested the Seaglider and the navigation system in the Santa Monica Basin in 2020 and Puget Sound in 2022. The final demonstration, in the summer of 2022, was a 10-day deployment and test of the full system off the coast of Newport, Oregon.