Oceanic fronts, similar to atmospheric fronts, occur\r\nat the interface of two fluid (water) masses of varying characteristics.\r\nIn regions such as these where there are quantifiable\r\nphysical, chemical, or biological changes in the ocean environment,\r\nit is possible\u2014with the proper instrumentation\u2014to track,\r\nor map, the front boundary.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In this paper, the front is approximated as an isotherm\r\nthat is tracked autonomously and adaptively in 2D (horizontal)\r\nand 3D space by an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)\r\nrunning MOOS-IvP autonomy. The basic, 2D (constant depth)\r\nfront tracking method developed in this work has three phases:\r\ndetection, classification, and tracking, and results in the AUV\r\ntracing a zigzag path along and across the front. The 3D AUV\r\nfront tracking method presented here results in a helical motion\r\naround a central axis that is aligned along the front in the\r\nhorizontal plane, tracing a 3D path that resembles a slinky\r\nstretched out along the front.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
To test and evaluate these front tracking methods (implemented\r\nas autonomy behaviors), virtual experiments were conducted\r\nwith simulated AUVs in a spatiotemporally dynamic MIT\r\nMSEAS ocean model environment of the Mid-Atlantic Bight\r\nregion, where a distinct temperature front is present along the\r\nshelfbreak. A number of performance metrics were developed\r\nto evaluate the performance of the AUVs running these front\r\ntracking behaviors, and the results are presented herein.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oceanic fronts, similar to atmospheric fronts, occur at the interface of two fluid (water) masses of varying characteristics. In regions such as these where there are quantifiable physical, chemical, or biological changes in the ocean environment, it is possible\u2014with the proper instrumentation\u2014to track, or map, the front boundary. In this paper, the front is approximated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,5,185,195],"tags":[114,141,117,165,106],"class_list":["post-3588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-of-autonomy","category-publications","category-adaptive-sampling","category-proceedings-of-refereed-conferences-adaptive-sampling","tag-adaptive-sampling","tag-autonomous-underwater-vehicles","tag-auvs","tag-front-tracking","tag-path-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mseas.mit.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mseas.mit.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mseas.mit.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mseas.mit.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mseas.mit.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3588"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mseas.mit.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3602,"href":"https:\/\/mseas.mit.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3588\/revisions\/3602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mseas.mit.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mseas.mit.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mseas.mit.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}