Towed camera systems are commonly used to collect photo and video images of the deep seafloor for a wide variety of purposes, from pure exploratory research to the development of management plans. Ongoing technological developments are increasing the quantity and quality of data collected from the deep seafloor. Despite these improvements, the area of seafloor, which towed systems can survey, optically remains limited by the rapid attenuation of visible wavelengths within water. We present an overview of a new towed camera platform integrating additional acoustical devices: the ocean floor observation and bathymetry system (OFOBS). The towed system maintains continuous direct communication via fiber optic cable with a support vessel, operational at depths up to 6000 m. In addition to collecting seafloor photo and video data, OFOBS gathers sidescan data over a 100-m swath width. OFOBS functionality is further augmented by a forward looking sonar, used to aid in hazard avoidance and real-time course correction. Data collected during the first field deployments of OFOBS, at a range of seamounts on the Langseth Ridge/Gakkel Ridge intersection (86°N , 61°E) in the high Arctic in September 2016, are presented to demonstrate the functionality of the system. Collected from a location with near continuous ice cover, this explanatory data set highlights the advantages of the system for deep-sea survey work in environments currently difficult to access for the majority of subsurface research platforms.

Tactile sensors, because of their intrinsic insensitivity to lighting conditions and water turbidity, provide promising opportunities for perception and object recognition in underwater and deep-sea environments. However, the limited availability of tactile sensors for underwater use has led to limited research in this domain. Recently, we have developed a deep-sea-capable tactile sensing system, with high spatial and force resolutions, which has made underwater haptic exploration possible for the first time. This paper presents a tactile sensor-based object recognition and localization methodology for structured underwater and deep-sea applications. Our approach is based on database matching using a local feature-based Random Sampling and Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm, and sequentially evolving the resulting hypotheses over the course of object exploration. It can handle a large database of three-dimensional objects of complex shapes, and it performs a complete six degree of freedom localization of a static object. An approach to utilize both contact and free-space measurements is presented. Extensive experimentation is performed in underwater environments for validating both the sensor system and the algorithms. To our knowledge, this is the first instance of haptic object recognition and localization in underwater and deep-sea environments. C 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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When working in deep-sea environments, the ambient pressure of the water column causes special design effort on the integration of electronic components for robotic structures. Until recently, electronic modules required housings which allowed the use of electronics at pressure conditions like they are on land. These housings increased the costs and the dimensions of the overall system as those modules are bulky and expensive to manufacture. Other ways have to be taken when designing miniaturized components. A hybrid approach between pressure tolerant systems design and pressure hulls enables the realization of miniaturized and cost-effective components for deep-sea.

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-TRAMPER is an autonomous benthic crawler equipped with oxygen sensors to perform long-term flux time series measurements at abyssal depth. The crawler is developed within the HGF-Alliance ROBEX. TRAMPER has five main subsystems: the titanium frame with the flotation, the caterpillar drive system, recovery and communication systems, energy and electronics and a multi-optode profiler as the scientific payload. A lithium-ion battery pack provides the energy to run an oxygen profiling system performing consecutive measurements (>52 cycles) along its transecting moving on the seafloor. This new generation of optode-based oxygen monitoring system allows using 18 oxygen optodes and is able to perform in situ calibrations. A video-guided launching system is used to deploy the crawler at the seafloor. At the seafloor the pre-programmed mission scenario is performed consisting of consecutive sleeping, moving and measurement cycles. The aim is to cover a seasonal cycle of settling organic matter on the seafloor and to resolve the impact on the benthic community respiration activity.