The Underwater Vehicles Laboratory of the M.I.T. Sea Grant College Program will purchase equipment to enhance the communication, navigation, sensor and control capabilities of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). The equipment will be used for research and development of AUVs as oceanographic research platforms. Six missions have been chosen to direct this effort. They include the investigation of plate tectonics and spreading centers through the study of the Earth's magnetic field in the Atlantic Ridge and the Antarctic, the search for cold-seeps in Monterey Bay, the study of the algae pilayella littoralis, the development of geophysical navigation methods, and the mechanics of Arctic ice. Work on a test-bed AUV at the MIT Underwater Vehicles Laboratory has demonstrated the feasibility of such a vehicle. The availability of this equipment will facilitate the laboratory's long range plan to provide these AUVs for use as research tools.
