A LOOK AT UNMANNED UNDERWATER VEHICLES |
|
Exploration of the world's vast ocean depths has increasingly become the job of unmanned
underwater vehicles (UUVs) due to rapidly advancing robotic technology. Such tools are
now routinely used to survey, photograph and perform in some of the harshest conditions
known to man, and they can often operate faster, safer and cheaper than humans.
On Wednesday, March 5, for the next event in the ongoing HARBOR BRANCH Ocean Science
Lecture Series, ocean engineer Lee Frey will present the history of these ocean robots
and an inside look at their anatomy. He will also reveal the latest innovations in underwater
robotics, and the role HARBOR BRANCH is playing in advancing this field. His discussion
will cover both Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), which are controlled by pilots via
tethers and are the most common UUVs for both the scientific community and the offshore
oil industry, and the emerging and more complex Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs).
AUVs perform tasks without any human intervention during a mission.
Lee Frey works for the HARBOR BRANCH Engineering Division in the areas of software, robotics, and control systems. His recent research includes the development of an environmental monitoring AUV for use along the northern coast of Alaska. Frey received bachelor's and master's degrees in Ocean Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, and he began at HARBOR BRANCH as an intern in 1997. Mr.Frey will give his talk at both 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at the main auditorium of the Johnson Education Center at HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution, 5600 U.S. 1 North, Fort Pierce, FL. The talk is free to the public. For more information, please contact the Marine Education Office at 772-465-2400, ext. 506, or email education@hboi.edu. FULL SCHEDULE FOR 2003 OCEAN SCIENCE LECTURE SERIES: January 8 - Shirley Pomponi & Don Liberatore - Submersible Science at Harbor Branch: Looking from the Inside Out January 15 - John Tucker - Marine Foodfish Culture and Stocking January 22 - Edie Widder - Bioluminescent Oddities and Wonders January 29 - Ned Smith - What Goes Around Comes Around: The Gulf Stream and the Circulation of the North Atlantic Ocean February 5 - Greg Bossart - Emerging Diseases in Marine Mammals: Should "Flipper" Be Worried? February 12 - Tammy Frank - Lifestyles of the Very Hot, the Very Cold and the Very Deep: How Do They Survive There? February 19 - Clay Cook - "Hunger Makes Strange Bedfellows": Symbiosis of Algae with Corals, Sea Anemones and other Marine Organisms February 26 - Joe Lopez - The World as a Classroom: Molecular Studies of Marine Biodiversity in the Field March 5 - Lee Frey - Robot Explorers: A Look at Unmanned Underwater Vehicles March 12 - Amy Wright - DBMR: The Deep Sea-Link to Drug Discovery March 19 - Megan Davis & Ken Riley - A Fish Eye's View of Aquaculture March 26 - Dennis Hanisak - "The Gleaming Indian River with Its Waves of Blue": Poetic License or Remembrances of Things Past? (Kermit Returns) HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution, Inc., is one of the world's leading nonprofit oceanographic research organizations dedicated to exploration of the earth's oceans, estuaries and coastal regions for the benefit of humankind. CONTACTS: Mark Schrope - Science Writer 772-465-2400 x433) • schrope@hboi.edu Jan Petri - Government and Public Relations 772-465-2400 x241 • petri@hboi.edu |