CAUTION – An Innovative Aquatic Platform to Gather Water Quality Data for Environmental Studies

CAUTION – Catamaran-type Autonomous Underwater-sensing Twin-propped Instrumented Ocean Navigator platform was initiated during the summer exchange program of 2013 supported by Maryland Space Grant Consortium (MDSGC) as an integral component of the AIRSPACES – Air-propelled Instrumented Robotic Sensory Platform for Assateague Coastline Environmental Studies project at University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES). Nutrient run-off from agriculture, poultry farms, and other anthropogenic influences are threatening the health of the Assateague and other coastal bays of the Delmarva Peninsula. While manned boats can be navigated in certain areas of the bay, many locations important for environmental and other scientific studies are too shallow or spatially constrained to be accessed by large boats or accessed by foot from the shore. The AIRSPACES project is directed by faculty in engineering and environmental sciences at UMES and involves a multidisciplinary team of students to design and utilize innovative remote controlled and/or autonomous air-propelled, small-scale (less than 1.5m in length) aquatic platforms instrumented with various sensors including GPS, depth, pH, dissolved oxygen, salinity, and nitrate to measure the geo-located water quality parameters in the Assateague Bay and other water bodies. Sensory platforms such as CAUTION that are being developed by the project team not only provide an innovative and challenging learning framework for the students but also contribute to a critical need in the region. An exchange student from the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP) who was supported by an MDSGC scholarship, has so far led the CAUTION efforts with support from UMES students. In this paper, we report novel features of the platform and preliminary trials with data collection runs in remote-controlled and autonomous mode. All spatial and water quality related sensory data are recorded to a memory card on the boat for subsequent data analysis and mapping efforts.