First Arctic Under-ice Ocean Walking Laboratory (FAU OWL)

This study is to design an autonomous underwater robotic laboratory for different missions within the Arctic environment. Missions involve locating natural resources such as oil deposits, determining if the area is a feasible location for deployment of sea and air systems for many operations, and to obtain water and mineral samples to study and monitor the changing Arctic environment. Thus far, we demonstrated the feasibility of an autonomous walking robot that can be used to explore the Arctic by walking under a sheet of ice. A key component of this is that by controlling the robot’s buoyancy the robot will be capable of walking upside down under a wooden plank. We water proofed a commercially available model robot and carried out the experiment in the Hydrodynamics Laboratory. The preliminary investigation contributes to an internal proposal submitted to I-Sense Internal Fund Program.