Meeting Abstract

30-5  Saturday, Jan. 4 14:30 – 14:45  Mesobot: Toward autonomous observations of organismal behavior in the ocean’s midwaters KATIJA, K*; GOVINDARAJAN, A; LLOPIZ, J; WIEBE, P; BREIER, J; HOBSON, B; RISI, M; ROBISON, B; ROCK, S; YOERGER, D; Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institution, Moss Landing, CA; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA; Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institution, Moss Landing, CA; Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institution, Moss Landing, CA; Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institution, Moss Landing, CA; Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA kakani@mbari.org http://www.bioinspirationlab.org

Animals in the ocean’s midwaters are some of the least understood organismal systems due to the technological challenges of non-invasively observing behavior in an exceedingly remote place. To address this need, we developed a new hybrid (remotely and autonomously operated) underwater vehicle called the Mesobot. Rated to 1000 m, this vehicle is designed to track and observe slow-moving midwater animals (e.g., salps, jellies, crustaceans) with minimal disruption. After acquiring animal targets under teleoperated control through a tether, the tether is released and the vehicle autonomously tracks targets for up to 24 hrs. While the Mesobot had its first deployments in 2019, we will present preliminary results from field trials that utilized the Mesobot’s stereo imaging hardware and JellyTrack algorithms on ROV MiniROV in Monterey Bay. Long duration observations of an amphipod (Phronima sedentaria) in a salp barrel and a feeding siphonophore (Lychnagalma utricularia) clearly illustrate the challenges and highlight the potential a vehicle like Mesobot will have on our understanding of midwater inhabitants.