The RUM (Remote Underwater Manipulator), one of the laboratory research vehicles of the Marine Physical Laboratory, USA, is a tracked vehicle capable of operating on the sea floor to depths of more than 6000 ft. An umbilical coaxial strain cable connects it with a surface support platform ORB (Oceanographic Research Buoy) and provides the power and data transmission required for unmanned remote sea floor operations. A brief description of this sea floor work system is presented, whose main emphasis concerns the instrumentation suite developed for in situ soil trafficability studies with RUM. RUM has been instrumented for remote operation of a 2-ft-long 3-in.-diameter corer, a vane shear meter, a cone penetrometer, an anchor-winch-tensiometer combination for the measurement of drawbar pull, and a short range, high resolution echo-sounding profiler for examination of track depression. All of these instruments are adapted for use by the manipulator arm mounted on RUM, and all telemeter their data back to ORB via the coaxial strain cable. Results of initial measurements with the system are discussed.