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New research vessel unveiled at CSHEL
The vessel is an 83-inch long, 200-pound Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), a highly advanced submersible robot equipped with a variable payload of sophisticated scientific equipment. The robot, which resembles a torpedo, was designed by Sias Patterson Inc. and built at the company’s Yorktown, Va., facilities, according to Arthur C. Trembanis, assistant professor of geology and CSHEL director. Trembanis has dubbed the robot DOERRI, short for the Delaware Oceanographic and Environmental Research Remote Instrument, and said it will provide an important platform for research and teaching activities. “Today we are welcoming the newest and smallest vessel in the University of Delaware research fleet,” Trembanis said, after which his wife, Sarah, and young daughter, Ella, christened the vessel by sprinkling it with champagne. “May your dives all run smoothly and may you always return safely,” Sarah Trembanis said. DOERRI is a leading-edge unmanned, untethered mini-submarine that is capable of being trained to conduct missions in rivers, lakes, estuaries and the open ocean. It can handle missions up to 30 hours in duration and depths of 500 feet, making it well suited for coastal research throughout Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic, out to the edge of the continental shelf. DOERRI carries a suite of high-powered computer systems that enable it to “learn” as it operates and to make its own decisions once underwater and out of reach of radio communications. Because the DOERRI offers a modular platform for the quick exchange of instruments and sensors, Trembanis said it will allow for collaboration with researchers from a variety of colleges and departments on campus, including geology, biological sciences, chemistry and biochemistry and engineering. The robot can be outfitted for a wide range of missions, including sniffing out algal blooms, mapping the ocean floor and coast, checking lanes for hazards and assessing fisheries stocks. It can operate through a number of hazards, including storms and chemical spills. DOERRI is white with blue and gold trim, and features a decal of a diving YoUDee. Sea trials and testing of DOERRI will begin early in 2006, and training will be conducted at the College of Marine Studies campus in Lewes. Eventually, Trembanis said he hopes to expand the fleet to between six and 12 vehicles stationed on the UD campus in Newark and at the College of Marine Studies campus in Lewes. On hand for the unveiling were Jim Sias and Mark Patterson, principals in Sias Patterson, and Bob Sullivan, general manager of Prizm Advanced Communication Electronics, which recently purchased Sias Patterson. Patterson is an associate professor at the College of William & Mary. “Sias Patterson is developing technology that truly is on the cutting edge,” Sullivan said. “It is the future, and we are thrilled that the University of Delaware has acquired a piece of the future.” Tom Apple, dean of UD’s College of Arts and Sciences, also attended the event. “'Prof. Art Trembanis, in collaboration with Prizm and Sias Patterson, is poised to revolutionize oceanography with advances in AUVs and underwater imaging,” he said. “The University of Delaware will be at the frontier of oceanographic research, and the new mini-sub is going to greatly enhance our understanding of the underwater environment hard by our shores.” Apple added, “It says a great deal about the research quality of the University of Delaware that we were able to attract a fine young scientist of the caliber of Art Trembanis and that he could so quickly establish a leadership position is his field.” Trembanis received a bachelor’s degree from Duke University, where he developed an interest in beaches and coastal processes, was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Sydney in Australia and earned his doctorate from the College of William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science. He did postdoctoral work at the Woods Hole (Mass.) Oceanographic Institution. Article by Neil Thomas |
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