Today was our first day broken into groups and working on the projects we are tasked with for the next week and a half. I am incredibly stoked to be in the most awesome of awesome groups, group 4. What is group 4 I hear you ask with bated breath? Group 4 is being described as the environmental group, but it is much much more than that, and not just because I’m in it! We get to play with the robots! The aim of the course is to have the 5 of us trained and competent ROV operators by the end of the next week, the phrase “Don’t be afraid” was repeated a few times. Quite an ambitious aim, however a particularly awesome one.
So, this is our little friend, who I will undoubtedly be mentally referring to as “Little Geek” a la The Abyss. It is fondly called “litten ROV” in Norwegian. ROV being a remotely operated vehicle, this means that someone is operating the vehicle the whole time it is deployed, just like a remotely controlled car or aeroplane. Tomorrow we will get to meet the AUV, or autonomous underwater vehicle, which steers itself, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish. ROV’s are somewhat more friendly to the newbie because if everything goes completely wahooney shaped (things completely stop working) you can drag the ROV back onto the boat/pier by the umbilical, not ideal but a good backup.
So, this is our little friend, who I will undoubtedly be mentally referring to as “Little Geek” a la The Abyss. It is fondly called “litten ROV” in Norwegian. ROV being a remotely operated vehicle, this means that someone is operating the vehicle the whole time it is deployed, just like a remotely controlled car or aeroplane. Tomorrow we will get to meet the AUV, or autonomous underwater vehicle, which steers itself, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish. ROV’s are somewhat more friendly to the newbie because if everything goes completely wahooney shaped (things completely stop working) you can drag the ROV back onto the boat/pier by the umbilical, not ideal but a good backup.
He can go to a max depth of 200m, though the umbilical (cable) we have for it can only stretch 150m, so that’s one problem avoided. It weighs 11 kilograms and has 4 thrusters (2 fore, 1 lateral and 1 aft) which means it has 4 degrees of freedom. More on that later. Tomorrow we will get to test him out just by the pier, see how he goes in the cold and just check that everything is working as anticipated. Apparently he doesn’t like to move against the current because a) he’s small and b) he has to drag the whole umbilical behind which creates a lot of drag and turbulence which is troublesome for such a small fella. One of the most important, and thus most boring, jobs associated with the running of little geek is the watching of the umbilical. It’s particularly important when you are ship board as it has been known for the cables to get tangled in the ship propellers which is not only detrimental for the ROV but also the ship, and in these cases the ship comes first and the ROV get’s cut free. One of the more distressing things that can happen to an operator I’m guessing.
The next device is somewhat less cute but integral to the whole process. Below is a transducer, this is dropped into the water and provides a relative position for the ROV. Because we can’t see the ROV and things like GPS don’t work underwater it’s hard to get a reliable fix on the location of the vehicle, this transducer can help with that. Just cause it doesn’t immediately look cool doesn’t mean it’s not completely awesome!
The next device is somewhat less cute but integral to the whole process. Below is a transducer, this is dropped into the water and provides a relative position for the ROV. Because we can’t see the ROV and things like GPS don’t work underwater it’s hard to get a reliable fix on the location of the vehicle, this transducer can help with that. Just cause it doesn’t immediately look cool doesn’t mean it’s not completely awesome!
We did a bit of a test of the kit on the ROV and this is what we got. The image on the computer screen is the live feed from little geek ie. A photo of me taking a photo of the video from the machine. It’s also what we will see when we operate, so we can avoid running into rocks and such. It’s also what will allow us to take photos of things that interest us during missions.
We also had a look at little geek with the lights on, and now you can too! This is him, lights and all. Lights being important in the polar night not to mention when you get down to 100m!
After the excitement of being introduced to little geek and the associated tech we went on a guided tour of what the other groups are going to get up to. So, logic being logic, we group 4 got circled around to Group 1 who are going to be looking at the spectral nature of bioluminescence.
Now, it’s true, Group 1 don’t have their own ROV, however what they are doing is really cool! (Though somewhat hard to photograph, so you’ll just have to trust me!).
Basically what they are going to do is fill a cage with some really groovoid and sensitive sensors and drop it through the water column to see what’s going on.
So, below we have some pumps (at the front of the photo) which move water quickly through the sensors. Without these pumps the water would move slower inside the instruments than outside thus giving wrong readings for that depth. At the back is the battery which supplies power to all the sensors and in the middle is the data logger which compiles all the information coming from the different sensors so that it actually makes sense when you download it. As with all the research we are doing there are quite a few unknowns, one really important unknown here is how long the batteries are going to last in the cold. That could well be the million dollar question.
Now, it’s true, Group 1 don’t have their own ROV, however what they are doing is really cool! (Though somewhat hard to photograph, so you’ll just have to trust me!).
Basically what they are going to do is fill a cage with some really groovoid and sensitive sensors and drop it through the water column to see what’s going on.
So, below we have some pumps (at the front of the photo) which move water quickly through the sensors. Without these pumps the water would move slower inside the instruments than outside thus giving wrong readings for that depth. At the back is the battery which supplies power to all the sensors and in the middle is the data logger which compiles all the information coming from the different sensors so that it actually makes sense when you download it. As with all the research we are doing there are quite a few unknowns, one really important unknown here is how long the batteries are going to last in the cold. That could well be the million dollar question.
Following that we have an incredibly cool sensor which basically works out how light is acting in the water column. Now, to explain this properly I need a blackboard, 6 colours of chalk and about 6m squared in which to wave around my arms, all of which the internet is notable for lacking. So you’re just going to have to trust me that it’s cool, it involves lots of absorption and scattering alongside some reflective and non-reflective materials.
The next device is really awesome and this is the thing that will be measuring bioluminescence. Basically water, with organisms, comes in it gets baffled around and then goes out. During the baffling the organisms fluoresce because they are baffled, in other words they get nocked by something and react by emitting light, in the same way we would emit an “oi you!”. This light is then measured and read. What we can do in the lab is send through specific organisms one at a time and measure their flash, this flash is unique to the species and means that we can “barcode” that species. So then, in the future, when we drop down the sensor into the ocean we can identify which creatures are where in the water column and in what quantities by identifying their barcode. All up, pretty awesome.
I’ll avoid further details about the groups, but show you some other cool stuff we saw instead. The hardcore microscope looking thing below is going to be used by group 2. They are looking at individual creatures living in the water and trying to find out the abilities of the animals eyes. What colours can they see? How fast can they see? Can they see their predators? Can they see their prey? Can they see creatures they don’t care about? All these questions and more. A big part of this research is done using this device below, which will eventually be held in a faraday cage, or box, to protect the equipment from noise and light and radiation which is floating around the lab. This device can look at animals and their eyes individually and check to see what they can see. They are going to be doing some pretty cool experiments and I’m hoping to get the chance to come up and have a look when they get some animals!
And last but not least is group 3. These guys are in charge of many of the sensors which will be going into the water and they’ve got some very sensitive new gear down there, much of which has been developed just for this research! So it’s new, never been tested and hot off the press. One of the coolest little guys was also one of the least assuming looking. Below you see the one, the only, the single photon detector! Now, as we know, a photon is a little pocket of energy which is perceived as light. This camera detects individual photons at a time taking incredibly fast photos. This means that you can see how many photons a light source is emitting changes over time. So for example, how does the moon change when it is low and high in the sky? Does it emit the same number of photons all the time or does this change? The same thing can be checked for the Aurora. All of which is really cool because it’s never been done before. That’s right folks! It’s new science. Just as science should be.
And the light hearted news, for those of you who have stuck with me through this long chattering, is rather entertaining. In about half an hour there is going to be a “swim” this being the Arctic of course the swim is going to be for naked people in the ocean. Due to my desire to survive the rest of the trip I have decided not to join, nor to go and take photos (sorry friends!), however, if you are looking for something to do in your evenings.. well.. swimming nud in the Arctic, I guess there’s worse things to do.
If you want to see a cool video of what’s going on down on the Norwegian coast have a look at http://love.statoil.com/
If you want to see a cool video of what’s going on down on the Norwegian coast have a look at http://love.statoil.com/