Sharing the Wealth: Towards an Ocean Sensing Network.

摘要

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and associated undersea technologies have demonstrated exceptional current utility and great growth potential for military, governmental and commercial maritime agencies as well as for ocean research institutions. While sustained and aggressive research, development, testing and evaluation is still in order, the technology is available now to benefit potential consumers with the incredible range of data these systems can already provide. Although unmanned systems in other domains (air, ground, and space) have experienced rapid growth resulting from wartime necessities, there remains a prevalent 'wait and see' mindset about unmanned undersea systems among those who work in and depend on the oceans. The drive for 'bigger, better, faster, cheaper' systems is understandable , but AUV manufacturing and operational expertise are niche commodities that require constant and consistent cultivation to maintain. Rather than continuing to impose the cost of development on government and military organisations , as is the traditional practice , or of imposing the cost of ownership on agencies that cannot afford the initial expense, existing systems can be employed across the world today to offset those costs by the creation of a pay-for-access network to share the wealth of data that is already available.