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10 Platform one February/March 2017 | Unmanned Systems Technology A team of scientists from German and Swiss scientific institutions has called for the development of AUV-based deep sea biological research equipment that can be deployed untethered (writes Peter Donaldson). Many nations operate new or modernised research ships that deploy towed sampling gear such as sledges, trawls and grabs using cables, an expensive and time-consuming process. Autonomous systems would lead to better science while cutting costs, they argue. Working under a research grant from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the team – consisting of researchers from the University of Hamburg’s Centre of Natural History, the Alfred Wegener Institute, the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence, the Department of Physics and Earth Sciences at Jacobs University in Bremen, and the University of Geneva’s Department of Physics and Earth Sciences – reviewed the state of the art in seafloor biological sampling gear and came up with a set of requirements for new equipment. These included better spatial and temporal sampling resolution, increased autonomy, more efficient sample conservation and the potential for studying seabed life in situ. Many creatures are damaged by changes in temperature and pressure when they are brought from depth to the surface, so studying them where they live would avoid this. Cost reductions would result from savings in research ship fees, as a typical large modern vessel costs about e 50,000 per day. The team worked out that an average 12.5-day mission to deploy an epibenthic sledge for collecting seabed fauna costs about e 625,000, and that expenses increase with depth. Autonomous sampling systems include bottom landers, crawlers and AUVs, with bottom landers suited to long periods of stationary work before they jettison weights to return to the surface. Crawlers can do the same thing and change locations, while AUVs can cover much larger areas. The team recommends developing highly mobile autonomous systems capable of mapping and photographing the seafloor and taking biogeochemical, biological and genetic samples simultaneously. This, they argue, would help standardise observations to make them more comparable between missions and research cruises, better explain patterns and processes and the functioning of ecosystems, and cut down on ship rental time, estimating that the investment in new autonomous systems would pay off after about ten expeditions with a large, modern research vessel. AUVs for seabed sampling? Underwater vehicles Researchers are looking to standardise autonomous underwater vehicles