Romeo goes to Antarctica [unmanned underwater vehicle]

Deals with the first operational campaign of Romeo, the latest unmanned underwater vehicle developed at CNR-IAN. Romeo has been designed as an operational testbed to perform research on intelligent vehicles in the real subsea environment. Its main application field is the development of advanced methodologies for marine science. A brief description of the mechanical design and of the control, computing and software architecture of Romeo is given and its exploitation in Antarctica is reported. During the XIII Italian Expedition to Terra Nova Bay (29 October 1997-26 February 1998) it has been used for (a) collecting data about under-ice biological processes, (b) testing under-ice performances of a set of acoustic devices for autonomous navigation and guidance, and (c) collecting benthic data in the Marine Antarctic Specially Protected Area established near the Italian TNB Station.