Underwater glider camera module successfully tested

The MARUM team is working closely with colleagues from the Plataforma Oceánica de Canarias (PLOCAN) to test the camera module. Researchers have long relied on the use of underwater gliders to collect data in the water column, however in this collaboration the use of gliders was extended towards the seafloor enabling the system to take images from the ocean floor.

To this end a camera module was integrated into a Slocum G3 underwater glider. In addition to a particularly light-sensitive and high-resolution camera, it has a separate power supply, its own lamps and a laser-based rangefinder. First tests of the vehicle looking into its approach to the seabed, image acquisition and lighting performance were then tested close to the coast. As the final demonstration, the vehicle was launched to operate autonomously for 2 days without user interference. During these dives, images were taken of the seabed at a depth of more than 450 meters.

“In the long term, the camera module for underwater gliders is intended to create a sustainable and cost-efficient platform with a deployment period of several weeks,” says Daniel Gregorek, who accompanied the tests on site. The new module can be used, for example, to detect identify ocean floor sediment types, observe marine ecosystems and validate acoustic seabed classifications.