Tutorial: Landers, Fundamentals of Free Vehicle Design and Operation Instructors: Kevin Hardy, Global Ocean Design, San

Diego, CA Greg MacEachern, Edgetech, Inc., West Wareham, MA John Head, Prevco, Fountain Hills, AZ Larry Herbst, Earthlight Communications, Pasadena, CA Overview Untethered free vehicles are absolutely the most cost-effective way to get to mid-water or benthic locations. They can carry traps, samplers, and sensors. They can travel to any depth, and remain from short periods of time to multiple years. They can release with countdown timers, acoustic command, galvanic time releases, or a preprogrammed event trigger. Operations may be conducted on smaller charter vessels from ports close to the site of interest, freeing explorers from the cost and scheduling issues of larger oceanographic ships. Some are small enough to be lifted with one hand from the ocean, but strong enough to journey to the bottom of any ocean trench. Small free vehicles with no HazMat have been flown overnight on passenger aircraft to remote destinations. The deepest places in the Atlantic and Pacific are close to American Trust Territories (Puerto Rico and Guam, respectively), simplifying U.S. Customs approval. Free vehicles may be integrated into larger bottom platforms, providing the interval return of mass data recorders to the surface, as done with the ATOC Pop-Up Buoy (PUB) design. Free vehicles complement the other classes of undersea vehicles: Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), gliders, Autonomous Undersea Vehicles (AUVS), mid-water floats, towed platforms, and manned submersibles. Each has a distinct suite of strengths and weaknesses. Component technologies such as batteries, glass spheres, syntactic, cameras and lights, may be tested on free vehicles prior to installation on the other classes of undersea craft. When a free vehicle is deployed as seafloor robotic station, we call refer to it as a lander. Some samplers, such as drop arms with baited traps and sediment samplers, are best used with a lander. Time-lapse photography or stitched panoramic views of a site are best done with a lander. Sitting stationary on the seafloor, landers are absolutely quiet, allowing recording of ambient sound fields. Swarming amphipods and other benthic scavengers are yet to have their sounds recorded. Ocean engineers gain valuable experience and confidence in deployments of free vehicles. New technology can be tested prior to fleet rollout using these robust, cost-effective platforms. The concept of free vehicles for ocean exploration was first proposed in 1938 in a brilliant paper by Maurice Ewing (Lamont) and Allyn Vine (WHOI), inspired by the bathyscaphe work of Swiss professor Auguste Piccard. Using rubberized float bags of kerosene for flotation, assorted instruments and animal traps began arriving on the abyssal plains. Ocean trenches were unfathomable in those early days of free vehicles. Later the bags were replaced with soft plastic jugs, finally reaching the ocean trenches

in the 1970s. The buoyant fluid technique persists into the 21st century, but is being replaced by buoyant glass spheres and syntactic foam. Other new materials and components exist today to achieve the mission objectives of a robotic free vehicle. Still, many of those early ideas, like basic seamanship skills, are profoundly relevant today. Using a SWOT approach (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), this tutorial will walk attendees through defining a free vehicle based on a potential cruise profile. A cruise doesnt start when a team leaves port, but when the work to get there begins. The limitations of the port facility and surface support ship will be considered. Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) sources of components will be shared, permitting end-users the opportunity to intelligently consider the Make-Buy decision, based on factors of time, cost, and quality. The course will cover: I. Introduction II. Vehicle Design A. General concepts 1. Potential missions 2. Applications of single or multiple free vehicles B. Frame 1. Hydrodynamics, Stability and trim 2. Lifting points 3. Taglines 4. Release mechanisms 5. Anchors 6. Drop Arms, traps, core samplers 7. Failure avoidance analysis C. Housings 1. Pressure protected, pressure equalized, pressure tolerant D. Flotation 1. Fixed, VB, trim E. Power, Cables and Connectors, intersphere communication F. Communication, Ship to Subsurface G. Sensors and samplers, including imaging systems H. Design for operation 1. Modularity means flexibility 2. Shipping 3. Handling at sea, launch and recovery I. Testing and Sea trials III. Prelaunch preparations and Deck operations IV. Launch A. Surface launch B. Suspended deployment C. Repositioning V. Recovery A. Communications and tracking B. Surface recovery beacons

VI. Sample handling A. Physical B. Biological C. Data VII. Charter vessels A. Selection Criteria VIII. Ports of operation IX. Cruise Preparation A. Staying in touch from the field X. Shipping A. Foreign and domestic B. HazMat and ITAR considerations XI. Tips from the Field XII. User Group dialog: fostering a creative dynamic XIII. References XIV. Reprints of selected papers The lecture will be supplemented with hands-on lab activities in operating an unmanned free vehicle. Instructor Bios: Kevin Hardy, is CTO of Global Ocean Design (San Diego, CA). Hardy retired as a Senior Development Engineer from Scripps Institution of Oceanography/UCSD in June 2011 folowing 36 years of service. In November 2011, he was invited to join James Camerons Deepsea Challenge Expedition, leading the successful Lander Team that designed and constructed twin ocean trench rated free vehicles, concluding that assignment in April 2012. With its corporate partners, Global Ocean Design continues to make the next logical steps in free vehicle component development. Greg MacEachern, Edgetech, Inc., West Wareham, MA, supported adaptation of the Edgetech BART board and acoustic deck units to Hardys ocean trench free vehicles. The systems performed successfully in the Tasman Sea, New Britain Trench, and both the Challenger Deep and Sirena Deep of the Mariana Trench. The Edgetech BART acoustic system has substantial built-in command expandability, including two release commands in the base model. John Head, Prevco, Fountain Hills, AZ, is President of Prevco Subsea LLC, a manufacturer of a standard line of underwater pressure cases. Larry Herbst, Earthlight Communications, (Pasadena, CA), adapted a high definition Canon 5D camera for both still and video operation. His experience with digital photography, camera controller interfaces, programming, batteries, and mass storage devices resulted in some of the finest high resolution, color images of the ultra deep sea ever made.