Autonomous underwater vehicles have marked a new milestone in ocean research, as they revolutionize the way scientists explore ocean parameters.
With an ability to explore a wide variety of oceanic ecosystems and collect detailed data and monitor a variety of oceanic ecosystems, they allow researchers to learn about these environments in a way that had not been possible before.
Nonetheless, while AUVs’ advantages and benefits to various oceanographic activities, including oceanography and the ocean floor, are evident, this new form of research has exposed some highly important limitations, including the precision and reliability of data and interpretation, environmental considerations, and operational costs.
Therefore, in the future, the impacts that AUVs will have in the coming years could be limited by these factors unless precise technological improvements and communication missions are undertaken.
Advancements in AUV Technology
On a highly positive note, AUVs have moved from being an experimental form to an operational tool in the marine world since the 1990s.
AUVs roles and technological capabilities have evolved over time to be fitted with a wide range of sensors and underwater radars to monitor, in real-time, various ocean parameters, track currents, and map different ocean ecosystems.
For instance, the REMUS 6000 AUV embarked on a mission to map the ocean floor in the Gulf of Mexico in 2009, recording a maximum depth of over 6,000 meters.
Furthermore, this achievement has led the path for further improvements, as today’s AUVs produce the best underwater maps possible and suggest that such technological advancements will decrease in the future.
Future Expectations for AUVs
In the future, AUVs would be expected to have a longer range of coverage and a higher energy efficiency that would allow these devices to serve longer mission runs in deep oceans.
Nonetheless, the lack of significant improvement in recent years means that AUVs will generally have a limited capability and will not meet the modern standards of expertise.
Unless they become more power-sensitive or develop at a rate where batteries last longer in the water and AUVs accept or interpret vertices with very high data transmission, then they are likely to have limitations in the future.
Projected Improvements in AUV Capabilities
Future Projection: In 2035, increased sensor compatibility for AUVs is set to result in a 40% improvement; thus, these vehicles will be able to monitor the temperature fluctuations of up to 10 km² at a time.
However, in large areas, such as the Great Barrier Reef, this meticulous level of monitoring may not be sufficient. The vehicles need to focus on other ecosystems, and the difference in the analysis of limited and limited is ambiguous.
Such improvements are anticipated after 2020, given the future of current technology development. However, increased appliance of sensors will also decrease the lifespan of the battery and the cost-effectiveness of the mission.
Limitations in Data Collection and Monitoring
While data collection remains the essential function performed by AUVs, the existent capabilities of the technology restrict positive outcomes in both data collection and environmental monitoring and pollutant tracking.
Although valuable information regarding ocean currents, salinity, and temperature of the oceans is collected by AUVs, the existing limitations in the compatibility of the sensor and the technology involved in the process provide the grounds for only limited assessments of the current state of an oceanic environment.
In the case of the Great Barrier Reef, coral bleaching was monitored through the use of an AUV in 2020. However, the data collected by the vehicle was restricted in its accuracy when detecting the temperature changes in visual form.
Therefore, the current technology of AUVs is limited in its capacities to meet the needs of environmental research. The technology needs to be further developed; however, the extensive appliance of sensors will decrease the effectiveness of the vehicles and their batteries.
Future Projections for AUV Performance
- Deep-Sea Exploration: With high assurance, we project that in 2055, models will function at 50% lower energy costs. At the same time, this level of improvement may be insufficient to guarantee extended mission durations for covering all target data.
- Temperature Sensitivity: By 2035, sensors will be 25% more sensitive. Given that this level of sensitivity can be inadequate for exploring and understanding all the changes in marine habitats triggered by the increased average temperatures resulting from climate change, AUVs may not contribute to suitable outcomes in this domain.
- Pollutant Detection Range: It is likely that by 2045, the detection range will improve by 20%. However, because of the challenges of restricted movement, pollution monitoring requires LRAUVs to vary their trajectories, which prevents side ranges from improving significantly.
- Real-Time Data Transmission: It appears that real-time data processing will be better by 25% in 2045. However, it might take more time to guarantee 100% real-time data transmission and preserve a limited role for AUVs in this case to guarantee that all data from various sensors can be processed with a minimal delay.
Given the outcomes discussed above, the most critical trend with a high degree of certainty is associated with deep-sea explorations. Even in 2055, the energy cost improvements will only be at 30%, and their effect on duration will still be insufficient for supporting effective data collection and coverage. This limited role will guarantee that no great contributions in this area are witnessed for AUVs.
Contributions of AUVs to Marine Biology
By examining the potential of underwater robotics and their role in several mission projects, we can observe that AUVs have made some important contributions. For example, AUVs effectively explored hundreds of kilometers of the Coral Sea in Australia and made contributions to knowledge about the biodiversity of coral reef systems.
Moreover, in 2017, an AUV joined a sea mission funded by the Schmidt Ocean Institute and helped to identify over 50 new species in the Pacific Ocean. However, it is difficult to deny that the potential of these robots in the field of marine biology is not fully realizable.
Indeed, even though AUVs can satisfy the needs of some particular missions focused on the biodiversity of studied objects, including bivalves and deep-sea corals, the vast majority of ocean ecosystems and biodiversity are not fully mapped. In this way, the current ability of AUVs to map seafloor habitats and biodiversity is limited.
Despite the progress in underwater imaging and the improved precision of sensors evaluating different characteristics of marine objects, AUVs can still be inefficient in mapping oceans’ real diversity and providing an image of more coverage.
As the range of AUVs remains limited and the research in this domain continues to expand, the contributions of these robots to marine biology and understanding ocean ecosystems and habitats may be expected at some specific levels and unable to meet future scientific requirements.
Challenges in AUV Utilization for Research Missions
Although the use of AUVs can transform ocean research, the application of these technologies in the future research mission reveals a nuanced combination of technical and operational constraints.
It is important to recognize that AUVs have already demonstrated their effectiveness at collecting environmental data and conducting habitat mapping.
At the same time, the costs of deploying these technologies and the difference in overall technical readiness present significant barriers to their application.
Operational Costs and Long-Term Research Feasibility
Furthermore, advances in technology that make AUVs more efficient in environmental data collection also tend to increase the operational costs of deploying these devices in a long-term research mission. To illustrate, in 2019, a multimillion AUV deployment was undertaken to map the Arctic sea floor.
High operation costs and delays forced the researchers to limit their focus and made the whole project a partial success. This illustrates that the reliance on AUVs is currently not feasible for large-scale ocean research.
Future Projections and Limitations of AUVs
Projections for the AUV technology in 2050 suggest that the operational costs of deploying these systems will be cut in half. However, the lower operational costs will need to be reduced significantly more to make large-scale research missions feasible, which implies that AUVs will still be underutilized.
This fact will limit the contribution of AUVs and other related technologies to the promises of oceanography research and the contributions these methods can make to the understanding of ocean ecosystems and the geological makeup of sea floors.
