ROVs and AUVs: New Technologies for the Future of Marine Research

A special issue of Oceans (ISSN 2673-1924).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2021) | Viewed by 5839

Special Issue Editor


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Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale - OGS, 34010 Trieste, Italy
Interests: marine geophysics; tectonics; palaeogeographic reconstructions

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The release, at the end of the 1980s, of satellite-derived bathymetric maps unprecedently expanded our knowledge of the seas and oceans and allowed us to appropriately orient ship-based future research in the field of marine geology and geophysics.

The advent of multibeam mapping systems has subsequently made it possible to produce sea-floor maps with increasingly high resolutions. In the last few years, progresses and developments in the field of marine robotics (remotely operated vehicles, ROVs, and automated unmanned vehicles, AUVs) have enormously expanded the range of scientific and applied studies in the marine environment. The availability of miniaturized but accurate sensors, as well as the development of innovative hardware architectures and the possibility to host a variety of different payloads has rendered these marine drones one of the most cost-effective, efficient, and versatile technologies, especially in shallow water environments, such as harbors, coastal areas, waterways, lakes, and lagoons. Today, it is evident that a knowledge-based management of marine environments is becoming increasingly important as anthropogenic activities on coastal development, fisheries, offshore wind, and aquaculture are exerting significant pressure on marine life and cultural heritage.

This Special Issue aims to host contributions in the wide range of underwater vehicles studies and applications, both scientifically and technologically oriented, comprising but not limited to the sectors of marine geophysics and marine biology, of underwater archaeology, habitat mapping, coastal hazards, and innovative developments in processing and interpretations of the different kinds of data that can be acquired by ROVs and AUVs.

Dr. Emanuele Lodolo
Guest Editor

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 887 KiB  
Article
Consistency Is Critical for the Effective Use of Baited Remote Video
by Robyn E. Jones, Ross A. Griffin, Roger J. H. Herbert and Richard K. F. Unsworth
Oceans 2021, 2(1), 215-232; https://doi.org/10.3390/oceans2010013 - 3 Mar 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5109
Abstract
Baited remote underwater videos (BRUV) are popular marine monitoring techniques used for the assessment of motile fauna. Currently, most published studies evaluating BRUV methods stem from environments in the Southern Hemisphere. This has led to stricter and more defined guidelines for the use [...] Read more.
Baited remote underwater videos (BRUV) are popular marine monitoring techniques used for the assessment of motile fauna. Currently, most published studies evaluating BRUV methods stem from environments in the Southern Hemisphere. This has led to stricter and more defined guidelines for the use of these techniques in these areas in comparison to the North Atlantic, where little or no specific guidance exists. This study explores metadata taken from BRUV deployments collected around the UK to understand the influence of methodological and environmental factors on the information gathered during BRUV deployments including species richness, relative abundance and faunal composition. In total, 39 BRUV surveys accumulating in 457 BRUV deployments across South/South-West England and Wales were used in this analysis. This study identified 88 different taxa from 43 families across the 457 deployments. Whilst taxonomic groups such as Labridae, Gadidae and Gobiidae were represented by a high number of species, species diversity for the Clupeidae, Scombridae, Sparidae, Gasterosteidae and Rajidae groups were low and many families were absent altogether. Bait type was consistently identified as one of the most influential factors over species richness, relative abundance and faunal assemblage composition. Image quality and deployment duration were also identified as significant influential factors over relative abundance. As expected, habitat observed was identified as an influential factor over faunal assemblage composition in addition to its significant interaction with image quality, time of deployment, bait type and tide type (spring/neap). Our findings suggest that methodological and environmental factors should be taken into account when designing and implementing monitoring surveys using BRUV techniques. Standardising factors where possible remains key. Fluctuations and variations in data may be attributed to methodological inconsistencies and/or environment factors as well as over time and therefore must be considered when interpreting the data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue ROVs and AUVs: New Technologies for the Future of Marine Research)
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