New AUV designed for lake environment monitoring

Abstract

We have developed an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), which can be used for lake environment monitoring. The length of the AUV is 2 m, its weight in air is 180 kg, and its maximum speed in water is 2 knots. It has two major missions: one is to monitor plankton distribution in the epilimnion by using its on-board submersible microscope, and the other is to monitor water quality in the benthic boundary layer by using a CTD instrument equipped with multiple sensors. The obtained data and images are transmitted to a surface research vessel (R/V) by ultrasonic waves, and subsequently transferred from the R/V to our base institute (Lake Biwa Research Institute) by a satellite mobile phone data link. We are expecting that this AUV will contribute to solving serious problems occurring in Lake Biwa such as cyanobacteria blooms in the epilimnion, and oxygen depletion in the benthic boundary.