Hydroid, LLC, a leading manufacturer of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
(AUVs), announced today that the National Science Foundation funded
Science and Technology Center for Coastal Margin Observation and
Predication (CMOP) has purchased two REMUS 100s for its studies. The
CMOP vision focuses on four goals: enable nearly ubiquitous,
river-to-ocean observation of physical and ecological processes; advance
understanding of these processes in order to manage, operate, and
sustain coastal resources and ecosystems effectively; foster
technological innovation; and train a diverse, scientifically literate
and technologically savvy workforce.
“A multi-month effort was undertaken to
determine the best commercially available AUV applicable to CMOP, given
operational and funding constraints,” said
Russ Light, department head and principal engineer of the Applied
Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington. “The
investigation included a workshop of existing academic users of various
systems. The REMUS 100 from Hydroid was selected as the best choice
based on this review.”
The Science and Technology center is a multi-institutional partnership
led by the Oregon Health & Science University, with Oregon State
University and University of Washington as major partners. It was formed
to facilitate interdisciplinary research, technology development,
education and knowledge transfer in order to achieve a better
understanding of physical, chemical and biological processes regulating
river-to-ocean ecosystems. CMOP is focusing its efforts on the Columbia
River and the adjacent Pacific Northwest estuaries and coastal ocean as
a prototype for similar systems worldwide.
The REMUS 100 system will be deployed in CMOP's experimental observation
network as mobile platforms for oceanographic sensors. The environmental
monitoring data they record will play a critical role in analyzing the
impact of humans on estuaries and coastal environments. The AUV will
also be used to determine the influence of climate on physical and
biological conditions and the variability of coastal margins and to
identify the role of coastal margins in global elemental cycles. “AUVs
will add critically to our ability to observe high-gradient regions in
the Columbia River plume, and perhaps even in the estuary,”
says CMOP director and OHSU professor António
Baptista. The two CMOP AUVs will be deployed periodically throughout
each operational year. Users of the REMUS 100 can acquire or adapt new
specialized sensors for the vehicles as required for specific scientific
objectives.
“We are very pleased to be the supplier of the
REMUS 100 to the Science and Technology center for CMOP research,”
said Christopher von Alt, president and one of the co-founders of
Hydroid. “We expect that CMOP scientists will
task the REMUS 100 with complex missions and fully anticipate the REMUS
100 to once again prove it is capable of gathering data in adverse
marine environments.”
About Hydroid, LLC
Hydroid LLC holds the exclusive license from the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution for the manufacture and further development of
the REMUS Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) technology.
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