UUVs | Insight operation should be possible, based on the data gathered so far. Environmental sampling While offshore wind energy has been cited numerous times as a key growth market that is spurring investment in oceangoing uncrewed systems, the seabed mineral market is also a critical emerging space. It depends on UUVs capable of supporting explorations and potentially infrastructure establishment at depths greater than 5000 m. “Both of these industries require environmental monitoring and surveying beyond conventional bathymetry, and it can’t be done scalably or flexibly with ROVs,” explains Jake Russell, CEO of Orpheus Ocean. “Before becoming aware of the need for both environmental data and sample collection in these industries, the team conceived of an AUV design for routine and scalable scientific research of hadal zones: areas of the ocean 6000-11,000 m deep. Only a few assets in the world – often crewed submersibles or very heavy ROVs – are effectively capable of reaching and returning from those depths.” To that end, Orpheus Ocean has engineered its vehicle (called the Orpheus AUV, as of writing, subject to change) as a 70 x 60 x 52 in (177.8 x 152.4 x 132.08 cm) AUV, weighing 550 lb (250 kg) in air, including 50-70 lb of payload capacity. The system features an elongated, cuboid body with four LEDs mounted near the nose for forward illumination, a glass sphere for integrating cameras, batteries and other electronics inside the nose, a payload bay at the underbelly, thrusters at the rear, and landing skids extending from the undercarriage. Using its standard-issue battery, the vehicle can operate for up to 12 hours when using its thrusters in ‘active’ mode or up to 120 hours in ‘passive’ mode, such as surveying on the seafloor while landed on its skids. For such surveys it will be able to integrate sensors for methane, dissolved oxygen, pH and turbidity, as well as a UHD colour camera, an eDNA sampler, and a sediment push-core sampler capable of scooping and storing up to 12 samples of seabed material per deployment. Headquartered in Massachusetts, Orpheus Ocean was incorporated as a start-up in mid-2024. The Orpheus AUV technology had been conceived and developed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) since 2019, in collaboration with NASA JPL. Orpheus now has the exclusive licence to design and commercialise it. “Over the course of r&d, getting the sample collection right has been what’s really stretched the capabilities of the autonomy software. We are not just navigating a 3D open ocean space; we’re actually interacting directly with the seafloor,” Russell says. “There is the aspect of terrain following, by which we navigate very closely to the seafloor for high-resolution surveys, but we also then have to choose a place to land that is best for collecting samples. That depends on inputs from the onboard sensors to gather what is the most opportune area, and after the sample collection you actually have to evaluate whether you’ve collected good samples or whether you should abandon some samples and attempt collection again.” The aforementioned core-sampler payload will fire six pairs of sampling tools in sequence, each one retrieving a sediment core roughly 5 cm wide and 25-30 cm long. The first prototype sampler payload is near completion, as of writing. Two Orpheus AUV prototypes have been built, with one more in the works at Orpheus’ HQ, and four test deployments have concluded successfully (most recently on a NOAAsponsored expedition, which included explorations of methane seeps in Alaskan waters at depths of 4900 m). “But you don’t know what seafloor material at such depths is like until you actually touch it, so we’re programming a lot of adaptive decision-making into the autonomy software that is unlike anything that’s come before, because no other AUV has had to interact with the seafloor this way,” Russell says. “There are also hardware challenges when it comes to operating at extreme depths, but the engineers here, and at WHOI, including my co-founder and CTO, Casey, are all well-versed in building things that can mechanically handle those kinds of pressures and conditions. “Keeping costs and weight down are the less practised items, and we’ve focused on resolving those, particularly on our road towards scalability. So we’re planning to scale up our manufacturing, starting in summer 2025, around a commercial, productionised version of the AUV.” 85 Uncrewed Systems Technology | February/March 2025 Orpheus Ocean’s AUV is being engineered for surveying, landing and collecting samples in hadal zones of 6000-11,000 m deep (Image courtesy of Orpheus Ocean)
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