Robotic Operations
	Introduction The Three Sisters AUVs Superman AUV Tug ROV Drillette ROV Distant Docking Station Spiral Sensor Array Sensor Fleet Sensors Tools Docking with Habitat Power Mobility Structure Navigation

Distant Docking Station

The Distant Docking Station is an interface close to the vent systems that acts as the joint between a communications/power cable running from the Habitat and the Robots that need access to the communications and power source. The devices that will make use of the Distant Docking Station in the first six months of operation are Drillette and The Spiral Sensor Array, The Three Sisters and Superman. Drillette will hook a shorter tether to the Station to get enough power for her core sample drills. The Spiral Sensor Array will be using the Station more frequently with a permanent connection that will give the power to run the sensors and provide a means to transport the collected data back to the habitat to analyze.The AUV's will also use the Station to recharge batteries and transmit data.

Advantages for Spiral Sensor Array

Solving many of the difficulities of other modes of communication, the Distant Docking Station has many advantages. The Spiral Sensor Array was originally going to transmit its data via acoustic modem, but that proves untenable. Not only did that ignore the need to power the sensors, but the acoustic modems would have severe distortions in an environment of severe temperature gradients and dissolved compounds. Connecting a Sensor Array to a Docking Station has been tested in the Distributed Surveillance Sensor Network (DSSN) in 1996.

Advantages for Drillette

There were also many difficulties in designing a cable for a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) in the Atlantis II environment. An ROV's cables provide its source of power and a mode of communication. Communication is integral to ROV's because without an interface to bring information about it's surroundings to it's operators to relay commands to the vehicle it ROV can do nothing. A simple cable with the manned vehicle is sufficient for the operations of the ROV Tug, but the Manned Vehicle can not carry enough power for Drillete. The difficulty of creating a cable is summed up on the Tug page,

First, currents make it difficult to control the cable and keep it in place. It is also important that the cable not drag along the seafloor and damage the life and geology the scientists are there to study. Further, a cable that is a few miles long requires a vehicle with huge propusion capabilities because it takes so much power to drag its entire mass.

A docking station means that all Drillette needs to do is carry enough power to swim to the station. Upon reaching the station, she can replenish power supplies and reconnect with scientists to execute her operations. For the connection of the cable, wet mateable connectors will be used, so there is no danger of electrical complications. Acoustic and optical terminal guidance will be used, to guide the rov cable into the station power socket. (See Docking)

Advantages for AUVs

With this station, Tug and the Three Sisters will no longer have to travel all the way back to the habitat everytime they want to send data to the habitat or recharge their batteries. Traveling all the way back to the habitat takes a substation amount of time and energy, on the range of two hours. Universal docking station prototypes exist now for AUVs, so the Distant Docking Station is feasable. In the DSSN, the Odyssey, an AUV, had the capability to deposit data. See Docking for a description of how the docking works.

Resources