One method for deep sea detailed survey with an autonomous underwater vehicle

摘要

This paper introduces one method to obtain super detailed sea floor acoustic image with an autonomous underwater vehicle and its result on the 2,000m depth mud volcanoes in Kumano Trough 50km offshore of Japan. Ocean going autonomous underwater vehicle "Urashima" was used as a platform to equip a high frequency side scan sonar system and its latitude, longitude and altitude was programmed and controlled keeping constant to unify the resolution of acoustical image. As the result, the vehicle was controlled successfully, and acoustic image of mud volcanoes was proved that the autonomous underwater vehicle has high capability for detailed deep seafloor scientific survey.