Networked Architecture for Robotic Environmental Ocean Science Sensors

Abstract

This paper describes an architecture for environmental science sensors deployed on a fleet of networked unmanned extended-deployment autonomous ocean surface vessels. This architecture allows one land-based human scientist to effectively supervise data gathering through a web of widely-dispersed mobile sensors supported by multiple robotic assets to enable in situ study of phenomena at the interface between the ocean and the atmosphere. In addition to meteorological and ocean surface data, the system supports characterization of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs).