Abstract
AbstractIt has been 20 years since the concept of the Autonomous Ocean Sampling Network (AOSN) was first introduced. This vision has been brought closer to reality with the introduction of underwater gliders. While in terms of functionality the underwater glider has shown to be capable of meeting the AOSN vision, in terms of reliability there is no communitywide hard evidence on whether persistent presence is currently being achieved. This paper studies the reliability of underwater gliders in order to assess the feasibility of using these platforms for future AOSN. The data used are taken from nonunderwater glider developers, which consisted of 205 glider deployments by 12 European laboratories between 2008 and 2012. Risk profiles were calculated for two makes of deep underwater gliders; there is no statistically significant difference between them. Regardless of the make, the probability of a deep underwater glider surviving a 90-day mission without a premature mission end is approximately 0.5. The probability of a shallow underwater glider surviving a 30-day mission without a premature mission end is 0.59. This implies that to date factors other than the energy available are preventing underwater gliders from achieving their maximum capability. This reliability information was used to quantify the likelihood of two reported underwater glider surveys meeting the observation needs for a period of 6 months and to quantify the level of redundancy needed in order to increase the likelihood of meeting the observation needs.
Highlights
There has been a significant increase in the use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) during the last decade and this trend seems set to continue
Of the 47 failures that occurred on deep underwater gliders, for 16 of them the vehicle was within altimeter range of the bottom
The paper presents a probabilistic framework for calculating the coverage that can be achieved by a fleet of underwater gliders
Summary
There has been a significant increase in the use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) during the last decade and this trend seems set to continue (e.g., see the summary of a market report at http://www. douglas-westwood.com/shop/shop-infopage.php?longref5 902;0#.UVlK8BlBH8g). Over the years little or no study has been made on the reliability of underwater gliders. This paper investigates the reliability of underwater gliders, resulting in a risk profile as a function of mission endurance based on the operational history of 56 underwater gliders during the period January 2008–May 2012. We close with a probabilistic method for quantifying the likelihood of a set of underwater gliders providing coverage for a predefined observation time. This process allows the user to estimate how many underwater gliders are required in order to meet a given ocean coverage
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