Integrating autonomous underwater vessels, surface vessels and aircraft as persistent surveillance components of ocean observing studies

Global initiatives are underway to establish Ocean Observing Systems (OOS) that can provide society better information on ocean conditions. These observatories include moorings, drifters, floats, and buoyancy gliders. Although gliders have long operational endurance, their reliance on batteries limits sensors payloads, thus some OOS also include autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) with active propulsion. In some observatories AUVs can recharge their batteries at underwater docking stations connected to shore by cables. However AUVs can also be recharged from autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) such as the WaveGlider, whose propulsion is provided by wave action, and payload power supplied by solar panels. In addition to this function, as components of OOS, ASVs can collect data and act as communication nodes for data from bottom moorings, gliders and AUVs. Unmanned air vehicle systems (UAS) may perform the same role. The problem of networking these heterogeneous systems is discussed along with tools and technologies for adaptive ocean sampling. A vision is outlined to build a portable mobile observatory for OOS which can be deployed anywhere, anytime, that relies on a mix of human-in-the-loop and fully autonomous computational technology.