Nereid Under Ice (NUI): A Hybrid Remotely Operated Vehicle for Under Ice Telepresence
Michael Jakuba1, Andrew Bowen2, Christopher R German1, Louis L Whitcomb3, James C Kinsey1, Dana Yoerger2, Larry Mayer4, Christopher McFarland3, Stefano Suman2, John Bailey5, Christopher Judge5, Stephen Elliott1, Daniel Gomez-Ibanez2, Casey Machado2, Christopher L Taylor2, Christian Katlein6, Stefanie Arndt6, Hanumant Singh5, Ted Maksym1, Samuel Laney1, Marcel Nicolaus6 and Antje Boetius6, (1)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (2)Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst., Woods Hole, MA, United States, (3)Johns Hopkins Univ, Baltimore, MD, United States, (4)University of New Hampshire, Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, Durham, NH, United States, (5)WHOI, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (6)Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz-Center for Polar and Marine Research Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven, Germany
Abstract:
The Nereid Under Ice (NUI) Hybrid Remotely Operated Vehicle (HROV) is a 2000 m rated robotic underwater vehicle that allows for direct real-time human supervision of mapping, inspection, and intervention tasks beneath ice and unconstrained by the motions of a support vessel. The vehicle employs a unique unarmored communications only fiber-optic tether that enables putative standoff distances of up to 20 km from an ice-edge boundary while under direct human control. Designed and built at WHOI’s Deep Submergence Laboratory, along with colleagues at Johns Hopkins University and the University of New Hampshire, NUI enables exploration, detailed examination, and sample retrieval from ice-margin and under-ice environments through the use of high-definition video coupled with a seven-function hydraulic manipulator in addition to a range of acoustic, chemical, and biological sensors tailored to suit the needs of an individual expedition. We summarize the technological and scientific outcomes of under ice sea trials in the High Arctic and capability enhancements undertaken since the successful completion of trials.
In July, 2014, NUI successfully completed its first under-ice field expedition from aboard the Alfred Wegener Institute's ice-breaker Polarstern. In addition to conducting engineering trials, the vehicle was equipped with various mission-specific biological sensors for studying near-ice primary productivity – a comprehensive pumped fluorometry system SUNA nitrate, Eco Triplet FL/BB/CDOM, SBE25+ CTD, FRRF, PAR), hyperspectral radiance and irradiance sensors (RAMSES ACC, ARC). We present an overview of results from four dives traveling up to 3.7 km under moving sea ice to a maximum depth of 45 m and ranging up to 800 m distant from Polarstern.
We also report continued development aimed at enhancing NUI's capabilities. During the 2014 trials the vehicle was not equipped with a manipulator for sample retrieval. Funding has been secured and design studies are presently underway to equip the vehicle with a seven-function hydraulic manipulator arm from Kraft Telerobotics and a workspace rapidly reconfigurable for sampling and other intervention activities on the sea floor or the underside of ice. Further enhancements include the addition of a permanent multibeam sonar and still camera systems.
