Development of a remote underwater platform for multidisciplinary investigation of marine environment: conceptualization, design development and first results

Abstract

The study and evaluation of the health state of oceans and major seas requires an integrated approach able to discern all the information about quality of the marine environment where seabed, water column and marine circulation should be considered as a unique ecosystem. Marine litters have a very important impact on the global pollution of the coast and offshore area because they are present both on the water column, as micro/nano litters, and on the seabed as macro items. Within the large family of marine litters, we also recognize all those objects related to the military activity of the last World Wars, which are largely widespread along the coast of our seas. Most of these anthropic objects are nowadays partially or completely buried below the seafloor. Investigation of the seabed for detection of any possible anthropic objects represents thus a very important task. Here we present the conceptualization of a remotecontrolled underwater platform integrating magnetic sensor, multiparametric probe, direct camera visualization and an acoustic beacon for underwater positioning. This newly developed system aspires to become a versatile investigative tool for a multidisciplinary study of the marine environment especially for the coastal areas and very shallow regions having anthropic influence. We report the results of the first test where we describe capability of the platform and possible future development.