A Low Energy Sensor for Auv-based Jellyfish Tracking

This work describes optimization of a field-tested jelly tracking system to enable AUV deployment under tight energy constraints. Inspired by research in marine biology, the task of long duration jellyfish tracking poses both an opportunity and a significant challenge for the AUV community. AUVs offer the potential for extended midwater deployments, enabling observation of natural phenomena during periods of 24 hours or more. To establish task feasibility, a prototype visual tracking system was tested in the ocean aboard MBARI ROV Ventana. These experiments successfully tracked a target jelly for ten minutes while consuming energy at a rate of 4 kW. AUV deployment will require dramatic reductions in power consumption, down to a level of approximately 10 W. An analysis of transmission and scattering losses leads to physical scaling expressions that describe sensor power consumption. Optimization of these scaling expressions suggests methods for achieving the significant power reduction necessary to transfer the ROV-based jelly tracking system to an AUV platform.