Seafloor Imaging Lessons Learned from Over a Decade of Surveys with SeaBED AUVs

The SeaBED AUV has proven to be a successful platform for seafloor imaging, as shown by over a decade of experience from researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi and the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center. Both of these institutes utilized traditional means of data collection before adopting AUV technology. For seafloor imaging, the passively stable layout and the maneuverability of this hovering AUV are great benefits. The vehicle is not without its drawbacks, but issues can be mitigated by end-user customizations. Hovering vehicles have not reached the commercial success enjoyed by the ubiquitous torpedo shaped AUVs used frequently for high resolution surveying. Therefore, the ability of the SeaBED platform to be customized to meet the needs of end-users is helpful to fill in the technology gap. The methods of mission layout and configuration of the vehicle itself are key to high-quality image acquisition. Once images are obtained, they must be processed to produce data products, which must be useful for the end user in order to validate the utility of these vehicles. After many lessons learned, these SeaBED vehicles have been enhanced and fielded to produce serviceable data products.