An Autonomous Probing System for Collecting Measurements at Depth from Small Surface Vehicles
This work addresses a niche in marine sampling for researchers or environmental monitors by enabling mobile sensor observations in the near-surface water column without advanced underwater equipment, but it appears incremental as it builds on existing autonomous surface vehicle technology.
The paper tackles the problem of collecting water quality measurements at targeted depths from small surface vehicles by presenting a low-cost robotic design called the portable autonomous probing system (APS), which was demonstrated in a field deployment.
This paper presents the portable autonomous probing system (APS), a low-cost robotic design for collecting water quality measurements at targeted depths from an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV). This system fills an important but often overlooked niche in marine sampling by enabling mobile sensor observations throughout the near-surface water column without the need for advanced underwater equipment. We present a probe delivery mechanism built with commercially available components and describe the corresponding open-source simulator and winch controller. Finally, we demonstrate the system in a field deployment and discuss design trade-offs and areas for future improvement. Project details are available on https://johannah.github.io/publication/sample-at-depth our website