ROV test run

We gathered in the Hydro lab. This room, located on the aft port side of R/V Atlantis, is usually home base for robotics teams. The Alvin team uses it for desk work, and during my last Atlantis cruise in 2015, the team for the Sentry autonomous vehicle set up their equipment here. On AT52, my current expedition, the Hydro lab is home base for the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) team. 

We're using a small ROV - a tethered robotic vehicle - to survey our two target shipwrecks, Quest and Terra Nova. The ROV can stay on the seafloor for longer than Alvin, and the video feed can be live-streamed all over the ship for everyone to see. The two vehicles - one manned, the other unmanned - perfectly complement one another. 

Dwight (chief scientist), Andy, and Sam (ROV team) during
the ROV test dive

As we steamed north past Nova Scotia, we paused to conduct a test dive with the ROV. The vehicle we're using has completed numerous missions as part of WHOI's Ocean Observing Initiative, but it has never surveyed a wreck before. A new camera was installed on the vehicle prior to our mission, and that camera required a new processing software for the images we collect. We wanted to conduct a test run to verify that the new cameras and software were working, before we got to a wreck site and used the system for real. 

Well, friends, we call the first dive a "shakedown" for a reason. The first time a system is used, there will be an issue - that is guaranteed. The trick is to find the issue in a low-stakes environment and then fix it before the real work begins. 

Our shakedown did its job. When the vehicle reached the seafloor, the software wasn't working. One of the ROV team members live-texted the manufacturer's tech support screenshots of the error messages we were seeing. After several rounds of back-and-forth, uninstalling and reinstalling the software, and trying a few different computers - we got it. 

There was a silver lining for me. While we waited for the installation to finish, the ROV waited on the seafloor. There was little point in having it sit still. Thanks to that unexpected delay and a very understanding chief scientist, I got to command the ROV pilots and explore a new section of the seafloor. 

There was more life than I expected. We were nowhere close to a shipwreck, and the sonar indicated only mud. Yet, a dense population of tubed anemones covered the seafloor. They were spaced about a foot or so from one another - all the same species, all living in gray-brown muddy tubes. Some sponges dotted the space in between the anemones. We also saw a crab, a flatfish, and a sea star. 

The dive was a valuable survey. It gave me an idea of the background seafloor community in the Canadian North Atlantic. And we got the software working. 

Atlantis is inching ever further northward. We are all systems go.