MIT News: Designing exploratory robots that collect data for marine scientists

MIT-WHOI joint program student Victoria Preston on planning optimal sampling trajectories for ocean robots and an upcoming cruise working with NDSF vehicles AUV Sentry and ROV Jason. “Overall, I see robots as a tool for scientists. They take knowledge, explore, bring back datasets. Then scientists do the actual hard work of extracting meaningful information to solve…

Watch at sea footage from Cruise RR2102 to: 9°50’N EPR with ROV Jason and AUV Sentry. On deck videography by Lauren Dykman, underwater video from NDSF and Dan Fonari/MISO.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), a world leader in ocean exploration, discovery and education, has named a new Chief Scientist for Deep Submergence (CSDS) for its National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF). Dr. Anna Michel, an associate scientist in the Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, will be the first woman to serve in this…

NDSF just published the first edition of a quarterly newsletter for the deep-submergence community to share regular updates about the Facility’s people, projects, and vehicles. We’ll feature updates from the Alvin, Jason and Sentry Teams, as well as news articles, original stories, expedition photos (we’d love to include yours!), and more. Read the first issue…

A multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional team traveled to the East Pacific Rise at 9°50’N in April 2021 to better understand the geophysical, chemical and biological connections at the hydrothermal vent fields there in advance of a seafloor eruption expected to occur in the near future. The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason carried instruments and experiments to the…

Images, samples, and sidescan of several corroded barrels on the sea floor off the coast of California captured by ROV Jason and AUV Sentry in 2011 helped UC Santa Barbara scientist David Valentine uncover a massive and largely forgotten chemical waste dump on the seafloor near Los Angeles. Read the whole story in the New York Times.

Scientists hurry to map the seafloor with Sentry before the next volcanic eruption on the East Pacific Rise.

WHOI geochemist Chris German pairs AUV Sentry with an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) called a Wave Glider to expand research here and on other Ocean Worlds

Jason Sylvan from Texas A&M talks about exploring the East Pacific Rise at 9°50’N in HOV Alvin. “I was blown away with just how much different it is actually being there and looking out a window and seeing the site right in front of you,” he told Gizmodo. Watch the video and read the whole…