Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 11/09/2008 - 01:38
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Antarctic Undersea ROV 08

Ms. Slaybaugh,

What are the "historical experimental structures" that are referred to in the overview of your project? And can you please describe the protocols you will be testing? Thanks, Annie

Sun, 11/09/2008 - 18:07

Stacy Kim

Hi Annie,
The historical experimental structures include moorings that extend 20 m off the bottom from the seafloor at 60 m depth, and card tables set on the seafloor, as well as other structures. On the tables and moorings are a variety of settlement substrates, containers of mud and gravel, plastic plates, tuffie scrubbers, etc.  The experiments were designed to test the effects of predation on colonization, and putting the substrates "up"  makes it hard for the dominant predators and scavengers to reach them.  Seastars are the primary predators and they are not very good at climbing narrow ropes or table legs.
We are testing our search protocols, incorporating Inertial Measurement Units into the pilots display to give us pitch, roll and turn rate.  As well, we are testing our depth capabilities, which could be different in the real word than in engineering calculations or lab tests. We are also testing our camera resolution in both time and space, and optimizing the lighting system. And, we are integrating the navigation system with the imagery system so that we have registered photos that we can overlay in space.
I hope that answers your questions, and thanks for writing us!
Best, Stacy