A quick update showing the trackline we ran on June 29 here at Pavilion. Dots are every 10th sample from the navigator logs showing total depth, essentiallys a single-beam estimate of bathymetry. We also collected Geoswath bathy and side-scan sonar. In total we ran approximately 25km of line today not a bad effort for our second day here. Now the fun and challenges of continuing this and of processing the data
We are down to the final week of preparations before deployment; all those last minute details that need to be finalized or purchased or re-organized. And there is the constant question "is there anything that I have forgotten." By the end of the week it just won't matter anymore, we are heading up to the Lake.
Donnie Reid, PLRP Logistics and Operations Manager
Then I get to the stage where I just want to get into the field. The "what-if" scenarios start to play through my head. I know that all those imagined issues and problems be handled seamless once we are at Pavilion Lake and operations are underway.
But mostly I am looking forward to working with amazing group of people. We have a collection of scientists, communication specialists, divers, cooks, field assistants, sub technicians, boat operators and support staff (many of these people taking holidays to work with us at Pavilion Lake) that will all pull together to create The Pavilion Lake Research Project. And in three weeks, when the field season is over, I will look back and be in total awe of what all these people have accomplished.
Donnie
Art Trembanis
CSHEL
University of Delaware
www.geology.udel.edu/cshel
From Google Earth
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleEarthBlog/~3/AxBPDm0gDLI/use_google_earth_to_prevent_looting.html
Art Trembanis
CSHEL
University of Delaware
www.geology.udel.edu/cshel
Art Trembanis
CSHEL
University of Delaware
www.geology.udel.edu/cshel
Yesterday marked my first full day of AUV operation. My team consisted of Adam, Bryan, Hilary, Ahley, Akanksha, and myself. The plan for the day was to explore the far basin first and then proceed to perform AUV operations in the closer basin after lunch. This basin was fitted with a GPS buoy and two targets that were all to be mapped with the AUV.
The morning mission in the far basin started off a little rocky. The AUV failed to dive to its starting point due to organic matter and shallow depths. After a little fiddling with control center we decided to start the mission in the middle of the lake. This provided a much deeper basin for the initial dive. Once we deployed this strategy there were no hiccups with the mission. It is a beautiful thing to see the AUV dive under and not come up for a full hour- pretty amazing.
After a quick debriefing at lunch it was time to conduct the buoy missions in the near basin. The AUV ran perfectly until it hit a snag- literally. The propeller became entangled within some loose rope attached to the buoy. Hilary dove into the cold New Hampshire water within minutes to untangle the fish. Luckily nothing was unharmed and the mission continued as planned.
Tomorrow is the last day of bootcamp. It will consist of data analysis, packing, cleaning, and hopefully a US Soccer win, (I'll settle for a draw). This week has been a lot of fun despite the continual lack of sleep. I learned so much in such a short period of time that I'm sure it'll be a while before I can step back and truly appreciate how much useful information was crammed into my overloaded brain this week.
Thanks Art for a great opportunity- I leaned a ton and had a great time
-Intern Out-
"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong".
Murphy's Law came into full effect today, in a big way. After a quick briefing session in the morning, it was supposed to be time to fire up the AUV and begin the missions on Swain's Lake. However a major kink was thrown into the works when the AUV malfunctioned. I was assigned to the Science shore team, heading up the data backup and computer work. So I worked on using a program called Sonarwiz to aggregate and Bottom Track the data from last week's "Sand Camp" that took place in Delaware. While bottom-tracking the map's picked up some pretty cool debris on the bottom- an anchor and a sunken ship. As I speak the AUV is still being worked on. The problem seems to be something regarding the networking capabilities of the AUV. The seemingly hundreds of wires inside were quite intimidating, so I tried to interfere as little as possible with the surgical esque process- You never want to have to many cooks in the kitchen.
Hopefully tomorrow I get to see this baby in action- So much anticipation
AUV Bootcamp Day 3
Today marked the first day of actual AUV testing. The morning hit a few speed bumps when the AUV failed to start properly. After some fiddling around it was booted up and ready to go around after lunch. During the morning hours I was responsible for more bottom-tracking of the data from June 1st at "Sand Camp". After which Adam gave me a crash course on how to find and mark specific features within the bottom tracking for later use. This method can be used to go back to the site and find specific points found in the sides-can data that peak interest. The morning was another brain-cramming session of computer knowledge that I would never have without AUV bootcamp. After A quick Panera lunch it was time to head out onto the boat to see the AUV in action for the first time. The mission was…messy to say the least. The plan was to travel perpendicular to the dock across the lake, turn and travel 30 m left and then head back. Sounds good in theory. The invasive milfoil that fills this lake proved to be the "foil", pardon the awful pun, in the plan for the day. It got caught in the propeller and proved too much for the AUV-mission aborted. They later staged a semi successful mission in deeper waters, but still the milfoil proved to be a major pain. Tomorrow is my groups turn to take the AUV out on missions that were planned tonight. Hopefully Murphy doesn't rear his ugly head again
So here I am, sleep deprived on my second day on Swain's Lake in Barrington NH. Today's events consisted of a 6 am wakeup (brutal compared to my accustomed, although admittedly lazy 11 am wakeups this summer) followed by an arrival at the University of New Ham`pshire Chase Ocean Engineering Laboratory at eight. Classes began abruptly, jumping right into Assembly/ Disassembly with PHD student Adam Skarke. Each module is stored in a separate case and assembled piece by piece. If one piece of information is to be taken from this lecture it's this- Respect the O. The O-Rings, however cheap and simple they seem, a cracked or dirty O-Ring can lead to a massive failure of the AUV.
The following talk was given by Val Schmidt on the "Nuts and Bolts" of the AUV. It detailed the purpose of each piece of the AUV. Finally Val outlined the Linux Commands needed to program the AUV. Needless to say- I have a lot to learn in the ways of Linux.
After a quick lunch break it was time for the final two lectures of the day. Stephanie lectured on how to manage mission planning using the Gavia Control Center. The program allows you to turn different sensors on and off, ( Ecopuck, Camera, Geoswath), upload maps for mission planning, set up mission lines and much more that I probably missed during the lecture. Finally Hillary lectured on processing and parsing the data from the AUV trials. Matlab and Python are used to graph and interpolate the data. From what I've heard about my summer project I'll be doing a lot of Matlab work once I arrive in Lewes…hope I took good notes.
The day concluded with some of the most delicious "Everything" pizza I've ever had back at the house and preparations for the next day. I'm excited to actually get to see the AUV in actions tomorrow out on the lake.
Until Tomorrow
Pat McLaughlin
| Hampton Roads, VA - 06/08/2010 | ||
 | 75° | Scattered Clouds |
| Forecasts | Doppler Radar | ||
| Traffic Cameras & VDOT Alerts | ||
The Navy, Coast Guard and local authorities are searching for four underwater unmanned vehicles that went missing Sunday during training in the Thimble Shoals Channel. (Navy handout)
NORFOLK
Four underwater unmanned vehicles went missing Sunday during training to conduct search, classify and map missions.
The Navy, Coast Guard and local authorities were searching for the missing vehicles in the Thimble Shoals Channel between the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a Navy news release said.
Communication was lost with four of the 13 unmanned vehicles Sunday about 1 p.m. while the vehicles were using bottom-mapping sonar to look for mine-like contacts in the water as part of the training. Search and recovery operations began immediately.
Efforts continued Monday using small-craft, shore-based teams, air assets and marine mammal systems, which could include sea lions and dolphins trained to hunt mines.
The cause of the vehicles' disappearance is under investigation. The missing vehicles do not pose a danger to civilians or the environment, the Navy release said, but if an unmanned vehicle is discovered floating in the water, boaters should avoid it as they would any other navigation hazard.
If one of the missing vehicles is found, please call the U.S. Second Fleet commander at (757) 443-9821.
The unmanned vehicles were being used as part of a larger training exercise with about 2,500 personnel from Canadian and U.S. military forces and government civilian agencies. The annual training exercise will continue through Friday.
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Sea Hunt
Where is Mike Nelson when you really need him? He didn't need no stinkin' sea mammals. Just give him a set of 38 cubic foot twin tanks with a j-valve manifold, a Voit 50 Fathom double hose reg, Sportsway Navy depth gauge, oval mask, Viking fins, and a Vulcan knife for slashing an airhose or two. And the job would be done in a half-hour to boot.
Omega Fleet
Check Omega Protein's nets...perhaps they dredged them up while systematically ridding the Bay of menhaden
Check the...
..lagoon on Gilligan's island. Skipppppeeerrrrrrr!!!
Call in Cameron
They should call in James Cameron. Apparently he's now the official expert on all kinds of underwater operations.
Not to worry
Special Agent Gibbs will recover them quickly, Abby will fix the hardware, and McGee will make corrections to the software so enemy agents cannot hack in and steer them off course in the future.
Hamas
Hamas stole them to fill with humanitarian supplies like Ak-47s and run them into Gaza
Catch of the day
I was having dinner last night at a local restaurant and was having their catch of the day. I noticed that it did taste a little metallic! :/
Probably mugged by some
Probably mugged by some renegade whales.
Keeping their value close to the vest.
Don't want to provide a "market value" for the finders who might try to sell or ransom them.
You'd think these things would have some sort of "pingers" or locator system that would activate when communications are lost. If we can outfit fish and eagles for tracking, why not these?
Finders Keepers !!
Wonder how much that unit would fetch on the open market??
Too bad I never got around
Too bad I never got around to working on that open source side-scan sonar package :-) Would take a large lift bag to get one of those to the surface, I'd guess.
Most interesting in this article is them using sea lions trained to find mines!
Ethan, how do you know that
Ethan, how do you know that it was open source software that they used?
Are you familiar with it? Just curious.
No, I ment, I had an idea to
No, I ment, I had an idea to build an open source side scan sonar setup. Side scan sonar lets you scan the bottom under the water and look for things, like lost unmanned underwater vehicles, ship wrecks, and other things.
I have no idea what they run on their stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if contractors used open source stuff on it, though.
Oh no,
Now this is a good reason to clean the Chesapeake bay.
Do not worry they will be on E bay soon or at a Norfolk flea market.
all four at once?
Who made these things,,,,,, BP and its contractors?
Watch out for that bus!
WHO is going to be thrown under the bus for this one?
The Bus...
I would imagine the CO of this group is currently tying himself to the bus route, blind-folded with cigarette in mouth, waiting nervously for it to hit him at any time...
How in the world does one lose 4 of these things? Dare I inquire how much they cost us?
Hope Dr. Evil doesn't have them.
This sounds like the beginning of a 1980s James Bond movie.
I was thinking the same
I was thinking the same thing! They should check all the cargo ships that traversed the area-maybe one of them had a opening hull and they snatched them!
OOhh!!
Is there a lost and found reward!!
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