Exploring the ocean and the seabed: oceanographic case studies where marine robotics can be applied
The ocean is a natural resource mostly still unexplored, especially in its deepest parts. Deep ocean and seas, as well as coastal areas, are complex environments, where atmospheric forcing and internal processes drive ocean currents and mixing, leading to the ventilation of the deep layers and re-distribution of nutrients throughout the water column. In addition, the ocean plays a critical role in removing carbon from the atmosphere and regulating the Global Climate. Seafloor topography influences ocean circulation by steering ocean flows and providing barriers that prevent deep water from mixing. Smaller scale seafloor features such as provinces of mud volcanoes and/or pockmarks are expressions of the venting of gas-rich fluids through sediments to the ocean. Their extrusive behavior and their physical and chemical interactions with ocean waters remain poorly understood due to their inaccessibility.
Marine robotics represent now the technological frontiers to reach these geological features and study their functioning. Moreover, the possibilities offered today by the new tools to map the sea floor at high resolution (i.e., combining bathymetry with photo-mosaic of the seabed) allow to expand the marine survey fields, such as habitat mapping for biological applications, underwater archaeology, geotechnical studies on coastal and port infrastructures, coastal evolution surveys, etc. This presentation will focus on some oceanographic case studies where marine robotics (e.g., Glider, AUV, ROV, TV-Multicorer, Ocean Floor Observation System) was or can be successfully applied in support of conventional measurements (vessel surveys, moorings, etc.) to make the ocean observations more efficient, cost effective, and low-risk.