An open-source Autonomous Surface Vehicle for Acoustic Tracking, Bathymetric and Photogrammetric Surveys

TL;DR

This paper introduces an open-source, multi-modal Autonomous Surface Vehicle designed for marine animal tracking, bathymetric mapping, and photogrammetric surveys, emphasizing affordability, reproducibility, and practical field applications.

Contribution

It presents a versatile, low-cost, open-source ASV platform capable of multiple marine survey tasks, with detailed specifications and real-world case studies demonstrating its effectiveness.

Findings

Able to track tagged marine animals for 5 hours with 1-meter accuracy.

Can survey 100x100 meters in 2 hours with 1-meter transect spacing.

Cost ranges from approximately $2,400 to $11,000 depending on sensors.

Abstract

Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASV) are becoming more affordable and include a wide variety of sensors and capacities with applications from ocean physics such as the Saildrone project to ecology with the tracking of marine species in the wild. Here, we present a multi-modal, affordable, open source, and reproducible ASV to track marine animal in shallow waters, collect information on bathymetry, and carry out photogrammetry surveys. The current specification enables scientists to track an animal equipped with an acoustic tag for 5~h and a spatial accuracy of 1~m. For bathymetric or photogrammetry surveys, the ASV can cover 100 x 100~m areas in 2~h with a distance of 1-m between transects. Depending on the sensors included in the ASV, it has a price ranging from \$2,434 to \$11,072. We illustrate these developments with a case study and a field survey for each of the different application proposed.