The range and endurance of the new long-range AUV (LRAUV) greatly expands the types of observations and experiments possible with autonomous platforms. For instance, one of the institute’s AUVs carries a comprehensive suite of sensors out to MBARI’s M2 mooring and back.
An MBARI based team led by Charlie Paull and Brian Kieft created a “smart boulder”—a motion-sensing instrument that can be placed within the sediment or on the canyon floor. This device, called a benthic event detector (BED), can record its motion as it moves down-canyon, providing detailed data on when an event occurred, how far and fast it moved, and the nature of its motion.
MBARI’s Controlled, Agile, and Novel Observing Network (CANON) Initiative is an interdisciplinary effort that utilizes smart, autonomous devices designed to cooperate with each other to collect oceanographic information.
Research programs at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) encompass the entire ocean, from the surface waters to the deep seafloor, and from the coastal zone to the open sea. The need to understand the ocean in all its complexity and variability drives MBARI's research and development efforts.