Autosub6000: its first deepwater trials and science missions

Abstract

In September 2007 on RRS Discovery, theAutosub6000 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)completed its first deepwater engineering trials and,fitted with a multibeam bathymetric mapping sonar,carried out its first science missions less than a yearlater as part of a geology and geophysics sciencecruise onboard the RRS James Cook. This paperdescribes how the issues of energy storage, navigationand buoyancy control were tackled that specificallyaffect a deep-diving AUV, capable of operating withtrue autonomy independently of the mother ship