The AUV conducted a total of 19 science missions including combinations of straight line transects, open grids, and quadrats with full cover between the lines. The full cover quadrats were located in shallow (~30 m) and deep water (~48 m) to test the potential of the AUV to be used as a long-term monitoring tool in water depths beyond normal SCUBA diving limits. Further, the deep-water, full cover quadrat was re-sampled to demonstrate the repeatability of AUV-based surveys.Towed video and digital stills were collected and aided where the AUV was deployed. Test the potential of the AUV to be used as a long-term monitoring tool in water depths beyond normal SCUBA diving limits.

This record describes the operations undertaken by an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle deployed from the FUGRO vessel Outer Limit in the Great Australian Bight (GAB). This charter voyage took place in November and December, 2015 as part of the Great Australian Bight (GAB) Deep Water Geological and Benthic Ecology Program, in conjunction with the IN2015_C01 survey. The voyage was a great success undertaking operations over 11 main target areas in water depths ranging from 900 m to 2,400 m. The AUV was equipped with a multibeam echo sounder, side scan sonar and sub bottom profiler, plus a HD camera system utilised during the small scale surveys over a further six selected areas within the 11 main target areas initially surveyed. High resolution bathymetry, backscatter and sidescan sonar data was collected along with photographic imagery of the seafloor. Track lines of the areas surveyed were also produced. A zip of the track lines (ESRI shapefiles) can be accessed and downloaded via the Distribution links below.

This report outlines marine field demonstrations for manipulation tasks with a semi-Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (sAUV). The vehicle is built off a Seabotix vLBV300 platform with custom software interfacing it with the Robot Operating System (ROS). The vehicle utilizes an inertial navigation system available from Greensea Systems, Inc. based on a Gladiator Landmark 40 IMU coupled with a Teledyne Explorer Doppler Velocity Log to perform station keeping at a desired location and orientation. We performed two marine trials with the vehicle: a near-shore shared autonomy manipulation trial and an offshore attempted intervention trial. These demonstrations were designed to show the capabilities of our sAUV system for inspection and basic manipulation tasks in real marine environments.

Solitary Islands (Barrett, Jordan, Hayes): Dives in the Solitary Islands were focused on surveying reef habitats around the Solitary Island Marine Park. The surveys were conducted as part of a collaboration between the IMOS Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) Facility, the National Environment Research Program (NERP) Theme 1 - National monitoring, evaluation and reporting and NSW DPI Fisheries. Dives focused on a number of reefs in 20 m to 60 m of water depth and consisted of both dense 25 m x 25 m full photo quadrants designed to allow repeat surveys over years and broader surveys up to 2km in length to document habitat distributions over broader scales. Additional scientific operations carried out at these sites include multibeam bathymetry, towed video and Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations (BRUVS).

GBR Queensland (Doherty): In the Great Barrier Reef the program is focused on seagrass beds in the middle of the GBR lagoon to understand how their abundance is affected by upwelling coming through the Magnetic and Palm Passages and on deepwater coral reefs on the outer GBR. Although there is extensive monitoring of shallow water reefs along the extent of the GBR, there has been relatively little opportunity to monitor deeper reefs. Understanding the nature of these deepwater reefs may provide important insights into the resilience of the GBR to stresses such as changing temperatures, ocean acidification, cyclones and nutrient influx from the coast. Surveys of the seagrass beds in the lagoon, which were designed to revisit sites surveyed using towed video ten years ago, and at Myrmidon Reef on the outer GBR were completed during July 2011 to establish benthic reference sites in this area.

Temperate WA (Kendrick, Babcock, Smale): A cruise was undertaken in collaboration with the University of Western Australian and CSIRO to document benthic assemblages on temperate reefs off the coast of Western Australia in April, 2012. This cruise was the third in a 3 year series of IMOS Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) Facility cruises intended to establish a benthic habitat timeseries along the Eastern and Western coasts of Australia. These surveys have been repeated annually for three years. Surveys were conducted off Rottnest Island, Jurien Bay, and the Abrolhos Islands. Sites were surveyed at each location spanning three depths (15 m, 25 m, 40 m), both inside and outside MPAs, with three 25 m x 25 m full photo coverage quadrants devoted to each site. Site locations targeted kelp beds and were provided by the science party. The locations of individual quadrants within each site were selected to repeat surveys conducted in 2010 and 2011. Additional scientific operations carried out during the cruise consisted of CTD casts.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) Sirius (IMOS Platform code: SIRIUS) was deployed near Whyalla in South Australia in June 2008. The objective of the trip was to document nocturnal cuttlefish camouflage behaviour near spawning grounds in Whyalla, SA. In excess of 100,000 cuttlefish aggregate in this area each year to spawn. The AUV spent one week following the Sir Joseph Banks trip being deployed at night in the shallow waters around these spawning grounds. In all, 35 dives were completed over a 6 day/night period. These short dives allowed the AUV to operate in very shallow waters where the cuttlefish are known to aggregate. The dive reports from this campaign summarise AUV activity during each dive. Data for this campaign will soon be available.

This project aimed to demonstrate long endurance autonomous exploration using multi-robot teams. The project culminated in a 10-day demonstration on the Cascadia margin (Hydrate Ridge) consisting of a Wave Glider tending and providing navigational aiding to a Seaglider using a one-way travel-time inverted ultrashort baseline system (OWTTIUSBL). The system represents a proof-of-concept for ship-less long-range exploration.