Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) and Towed Profilers

Rapid and repeatable vertical profiles and four-dimensional sampling of the ocean have been goals of the oceanographic community for many years. Years of development efforts are now leading to the deployment of commerical Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), self-powered systems that operate without a physical connection to the surface. AUVs include a varied and expanded set of platforms capable of performing pre-programmed underwater operations. Just as satellites enlarged our scope of data collection and understanding of oceanographic processes and air–sea interactions, AUVs designed for general oceanographic sampling and specific tasks will again improve our understanding of the ocean.

WET Labs provides AUV developers with a set of instruments for optical sampling of the basic biogeochemical parameters as well as visibility. Based on the ECO line of sensors, our custom "Pucks" are designed to fit the specific needs of AUVs: small size, low power, ruggedness and flexibility. The instruments' data format can also be tailored to each AUV manufacturer's requirements.

WET Labs continues to develop additional sensors for AUVs. Our Scattering Attenuation Meter (SAM) measures the beam attenuation coefficient for the first time, from a compact package.

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