EGGS & CUBES: Expendable Next-Gen Oceanographic Float Network

Understanding the dynamics of Arctic waterways is crucial to maintaining dominance at sea, and observational platforms play a key role in this strategic landscape. Buoyancy-controlled underwater floats have produced a wealth of in-situ observational data in the open ocean and will undoubtedly be a critical element in the Arctic. Swarms of floats can generate 3D maps of strategic variables such as ocean current, temperature, and dissolved oxygen content over large distances. Though these distributed sensing networks have demonstrable strategic value, they remain significantly underutilized due to economic and technical limitations of existing platforms. A multidisciplinary led by nou Systems is developing a network of low-cost, Arctic-hardened, very robust sensors. During Phase I, we plan to assemble and test a breadboard system consisting of a combination of custom and commercial-off-the-shelf components to refine our approach and performance models. We will build on the Phase I work during the Phase I Option, where we plan to build our first prototype system (including the most critical system components) and characterize its operation in a shallow water environment. In Phase II Base, we plan to fabricate fully operational prototypes and evaluate their performance at prototypical conditions in a representative environment. We expect rapid product development due to the maturity level of the proposed technology, the project team’s experience in this field, and the simplicity of our system.