Icefin: Redesign and 2017 Antarctic Field Deployment

Icefin is a custom remotely or autonomously operated vehicle (ROV/AUV) designed for sub-ice deployments in Antarctica with a focus on portability for remote field deployments and modularity to accommodate various payloads to characterize the under-ice environment. A prototype iteration of the vehicle was deployed in McMurdo, Antarctica in 2014 and provided data as well as valuable lessons learned. Since then the vehicle has been refined significantly into a more capable and reliable platform that was deployed during the 2017 austral summer Antarctic season (October 2017 - December 2017). Presented here is an overview of the design updates, including mechanical, electrical and software changes that were incorporated in developing the baseline Icefin platform. Also presented are lessons learned and early results from the 2017 deployment of the redesigned vehicle, as well as changes integrated into the vehicle for its 2018 field season.