Autonomous Identification and Tracking of Thermoclines

Abstract

All data acquired from oceanic water features is hard and crucial work. It's hard due to the difficulty to obtain the same data given the unfavourable conditions.It requires, therefore, equipment that are reliable in the measurements of the desired characteristics and robust equipment, that is to say, equipment that are capable to withstand unfavorable and variable conditions in spatial and temporal terms. Due to these same spatial and temporal changes, the traditional methods do not prove to be the most adequate, because these methods do not have sufficient capacity to sample measurements of the dynamic characteristics of oceanographic processes.Thus, to obtain such measurements the use of the autonomous robotic systems proves to be important. With these systems, it is ensured a faster, more efficient and systematic sampling and is not subject to human error. The data acquisition is then a crucial work to understand how oceanographic process happens and varies in time and space. This work proposes an implementation of an algorithm to perform the tracking of the thermocline, from the stratification model of the oceanic water.This model is a parametric model. This work will also take into account the capacity to perform measurements with a sampling capable of adapting the depth control of the underwater vehicle.The stratification of the oceanic water happens when exists different features between different layers. One of these layers is the thermocline. At this layer, the water temperature decreases rapidly with increasing depth. The characterization of the thermocline is so important to marine biology, given the high concentration of phytoplankton in this level, as for acoustic communications equipments or military services, given the special characteristics of speed sound in this level.The model of this stratification will be used to aid in the thermocline's tracking process. This model will serve as a basis for the algorithm to adapt the control in order to carry out the tracking with the greatest success, in real time. This algorithm will focus on the variations in the vertical temperature gradient.The algorithm responsible detect and track of the thermocline will be run on a profiler. The profiler is a vehicle that moves along the vertical axis. However, when subject to tides, the natural process in aquatic environments drifts along the horizontal axis. A set of sensors capable of measuring the water temperature and the depth at which the vehicle is below water shall be placed in this vehicle. These sensors will be important to calculate the vertical gradient.