MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts, is pioneering automated electric vessels to map the ocean floor and improve search and rescue missions.Andrew March, senior technical staff, said projects at the lab begin with big challenges. He pointed to the difficulty of locating Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in 2014 and the more recent OceanGate submersible disaster.”Ship-based echo sounders cover wide areas but with poor resolution, while undersea vehicles have resolution but search too slowly,” he said. “It’s called a moonshot. We know less about Earth’s seabed than the moon’s surface.”After years of trial and error, the team devised a system of evenly spaced automated vessels, like a game of Battleship. Dave Brown, a research engineer, said, “What we’re trying to do is make something that can get high resolution deep. The boats all have to work together so they’re not individual boats anymore—they’re a collective system.”Coordinating data from 25 free-floating vessels is complex. A large metal frame was built to hold them in place, and the array was tested in Boston Harbor to map wrecks.”This is imagery from our data,” March said proudly. “We reconstructed imagery with this sparse array in the real ocean.”The next step is a fleet able to maintain formation without the frame. Such vessels could be deployed by airplane to scan open oceans or assist in search and rescue worldwide.
MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts, is pioneering automated electric vessels to map the ocean floor and improve search and rescue missions.
Andrew March, senior technical staff, said projects at the lab begin with big challenges. He pointed to the difficulty of locating Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in 2014 and the more recent OceanGate submersible disaster.
“Ship-based echo sounders cover wide areas but with poor resolution, while undersea vehicles have resolution but search too slowly,” he said. “It’s called a moonshot. We know less about Earth’s seabed than the moon’s surface.”
After years of trial and error, the team devised a system of evenly spaced automated vessels, like a game of Battleship. Dave Brown, a research engineer, said, “What we’re trying to do is make something that can get high resolution deep. The boats all have to work together so they’re not individual boats anymore—they’re a collective system.”
Coordinating data from 25 free-floating vessels is complex. A large metal frame was built to hold them in place, and the array was tested in Boston Harbor to map wrecks.
“This is imagery from our data,” March said proudly. “We reconstructed imagery with this sparse array in the real ocean.”
The next step is a fleet able to maintain formation without the frame. Such vessels could be deployed by airplane to scan open oceans or assist in search and rescue worldwide.
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