- Areas of Study
- Program Requirements
- Curriculum
- Faculty
- Recent Dissertations and Theses
- A Virtual Ocean framework for environmentally adaptive, embedded acoustic navigation on autonomous underwater
- A Planned Approach to High Collision Risk Area
- Stochastic Acoustic Ray Tracing with Dynamically Orhttps://mit.whoi.edu/academics/fields/aope/aope-recent-dissertations-and-theses/stochastic-acoustic-ray-tracing-with-dynamically-orthogonal-equations/thogonal Equations
- Enabling Human-Robot Cooperation in Scientific Exploration of Bandwidth-Limited Environments
- Multi-path Penalty Metric in Underwater Acoustic Communication for Autonomy and Human Decision-making
- Environmental Effects of the Beaufort Lens on Underwater Acoustic Communications during Arctic Operations
- Survey Techniques to Examine Morphological Evolution of Coastal Regions
- Ambient Acoustics as Indicator of Environmental Change in the Beaufort Sea: Experiments & Methods for Analysis
- Human-Autonomy Teaming for Improved Diver Navigation
- Automated Open Circuit Scuba Diver Detection with Low Cost Passive Sonar and Machine Learning
- The Effect of Attenuation from Fish on Long-Range Active and Passive Acoustic Sensing in the Ocean
- Barrier Island Groundwater Dynamics
- Wingsail Design Methodology and Performance Evaluation Metrics for Autonomous Sailing
- Field-Portable Dissolved Gas Sensing and Perspectives in Aqueous Microplastic Detection
- Signal Absorption-Based Range Estimator for Undersea Swarms
- Advances in Passive Acoustic Detection, Localization, and Tracking Applied to Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
- Query-Driven Adaptive Sampling
- Developing the Next Generation of Autonomous Underwater Gliders
- High Frequency Acoustic Propagation and Modeling in Stratified Estuaries
- Mechanisms of Tidal Dispersion in a Salt Marsh Estuary
- Oceanic Ambient Noise in the Arctic on the Chukchi Shelf: Broadband Characteristics and Environmental Drivers
- Balancing Exploration and Exploitation: Task-Targeted Exploration for Scientific Decision-Making
- A Practical Search with Voronoi Distributed Autonomous Marine Swarms
- In-situ Characterization of Sea State with Improved Navigation on an Autonomous Underwater Glider
- Adaptive Robotic Search and Sampling of Sparse Natural Phenomena
- Underwater & Out of Sight: Towards Ubiquity in Underwater Robotics
- Processes of Stratification Breakdown and Restratification in Antarctic Coastal Polynyas
- Dense, Sonar-Based Reconstruction of Underwater Scenes
- Coordinated Tracking and Interception of an Acoustic Target Using Autonomous Surface Vehicles
- Enabling Human-Multi-Robot Collaborative Visual Exploration in Underwater Environments
- Morphological Approaches To Understanding Antarctic Sea Ice Thickness
- Robust Non-Gaussian Semantic Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
- Development and Deployment of a Novel Deep-Sea in situ Bubble Sampling Instrument for Understanding the Fate of Methane in the Water Column
- Adaptive Sampling of Transient Environmental Phenomena with Autonomous Mobile Platforms
- Computational Approaches for Sub-Meter Ocean Color Remote Sensing
- Modifiable Stability and Maneuverability of High Speed Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) Through Bioinspired Control Fins
- A Method for On-line Water Current Velocity Estimation Using Low-cost Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
- Advancing the theory and applications of Lagrangian Coherent Structures methods for oceanic surface flows
- Automated Open Circuit Scuba Diver Detection with Low Cost Passive Sonar and Machine Learning
- Observing Microbial Processes at the Microscale with In Situ Technology
- Perception-Driven Optimal Motion Planning Under Resource Constraints
- Statistical Models and Decision Making for Robotic Scientific Information Gathering
- Demonstration of Passive Acoustic Detection and Tracking of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
- Measurements and Dynamics of Multiple Scale Bedforms in Tidally Energetic Environments
- MEMS IMU Navigation with Model Based Dead-Reckoning and One-Way-Travel-Time Acoustic Range Measurements for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
- Field Observations and Numerical Model Simulations of a Migrating Inlet System
- Multi-Modal and Inertial Sensor Solution to Navigation-Type Factor Graphs
- Low Frequency Active Sonar Performance in the Arctic Beaufort Lens
- Wave-, Wind-, and Tide-Driven Circulation at a Coastal Ocean Inlet
- Extraction of Uranium from Seawater: Design and Testing of a Symbiotic System
- Graphical Model Driven Methods in Adaptive System Identification
- Distributed Autonomy and Formation Control of a Drifting Swarm of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
- Navigation and Manipulation for Autonomous Underwater Dismantling of Offshore Structures
- Hydrodynamics of a Multiple Tidal Inlet System: Katama Bay, Martha’s Vineyard, MA
- Real Time Bottom Reverberation Simulation in Deep and Shallow Ocean Environments
- Physical Control of the Distributions of a Key Arctic Copepod in the Northeast Chukchi Sea
- Characterization of Underwater Target Geometry from Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Sampling of Bistatic Acoustic Scattered Fields
- Quantification of the Spatial and Temporal Evolution of Stratified Shear Instabilities at High Reynolds Number Using Quantitative Acoustic Scattering Techniques
- Scattering of the Low-Mode Internal Tide at the Line Islands Ridge
- Controller Design for Underwater Vehicle Systems with Communication Constraints
- Autonomous & Adaptive Oceanographic Feature Tracking On Board Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
- Passive Wake Detection Using Seal Whisker-Inspired Sensing
- The Development and Application of Random Matrix Theory in Adaptive Signal Processing in the Sample Deficient Regime
- Evaluation of Vector Sensors for Adaptive Equalization in Underwater Acoustic Communication
- Coastal Ocean Variability off the Coast of Taiwan in Response to Typhoon Morakot: River Forcing, Atmospheric Forcing, and Cold Dome Dynamics
- A Computational Approach to the Quantification of Animal Camouflage
- Toward Autonomous Underwater Mapping in Partially Structured 3D Environments
- Interannual Variability of the Pacific Water Boundary Current in the Beaufort Sea
- Computational Strategies for Understanding Underwater Optical Image Datasets
- Toward Lifelong Visual Localization and Mapping
- Advances in Integrating Autonomy with Acoustic Communications for Intelligent Networks of Marine Robots
- Broadband and Statistical Characterization of Echoes from Random Scatterers: Application to Acoustic Scattering by Marine Organisms
- Uncertainty Quantification in Ocean State Estimation
- Measuring Surface Ocean Wave Height and Directional Spectra Using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler from an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
- Robust Acoustic Signal Detection and Synchronization in a Time Varying Ocean Environment
- Non-Rayleigh Scattering by a Randomly Oriented Elongated Scatterer
- Stratification on the Skagit Bay Tidal Flats
- Direct-Form Adaptive Equalization for Underwater Acoustic Communication
- Rapid Extraction of Dissolved Inorganic Carbon from Seawater and Groundwater Samples for Radiocarbon Dating
- Progressively Communicating Rich Telemetry from Autonomous Underwater Vehicles via Relays
- Contributions to Automated Realtime Underwater Navigation
- Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Navigation and Mapping in Dynamic, Unstructured Environments
- Multiple-Vehicle Resource-Constrained Navigation in the Deep Ocean
- Field Measurements of a Swell Band, Shore Normal, Flux Divergence Reversal
- Field Deployable Dynamic Lighting System for Turbid Water Imaging
- Three-Dimensional Acoustic Propagation Through Shallow Water Internal, Surface Gravity and Bottom Sediment Waves
- Computational Imaging and Automated Identification for Aqueous Environments
- K-distribution Fading Models for Bayesian Estimation of an Underwater Acoustic Channel
- Performance Analysis for Lateral-Line-Inspired Sensor Arrays
- Understanding and Utilizing Waveguide Invariant Range-Frequency Striations in Ocean Acoustic Waveguides
- Analysis of and Techniques for Adaptive Equalization for Underwater Acoustic Communication
- Modeling Wind Forcing in Phase Resolving Simulation of Nonlinear Wind Waves
- A Study of Ocean Wave Statistical Properties Using Nonlinear, Directional, Phase-Resolved Ocean Wave-Field Simulations
- Environmental Analysis and Prediction of Transmission Loss in the Region of the New England Shelfbreak
- Physically Constrained Maximum Likelihood (PCML) Mode Filtering and Its Application as a Pre-Processing Method for Underwater Acoustic Communication
- Internal Tide Generation by Tall Ocean Ridges
- Modeling and Frequency Tracking of Marine Mammal Whistle Calls
- Detection, Classification and Localization of Underwater Mines Using a Virtual Time Reversal Mirror
- Variable Buoyancy System Metric
- Sound Propagation around Underwater Seamounts
- CFD Study of Hydrodynamic Signal Perception by Fish Using the Lateral Line System
- Cooperative Navigation for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
- Forward Sound Propagation around Seamounts: Application of Acoustic Models to the Kermit-Roosevelt and Elvis Seamounts
- A Parallel Hypothesis Method of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Navigation
Autonomous & Adaptive Oceanographic Feature Tracking On Board Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
Stephanie Marie Petillo, Ph.D., 2015
Henrik Schmidt, Advisor
The capabilities of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and their ability to perform tasks both autonomously and adaptively are rapidly improving, and the desire to quickly and efficiently sample the ocean environment as Earth's climate changes and natural disasters occur has increased significantly in the last decade. As such, this thesis proposes to develop a method for single and multiple AUVs to collaborate autonomously underwater while autonomously adapting their motion to changes in their local environments, allowing them to sample and track various features of interest with greater efficiency and synopticity than previously possible with preplanned AUV or ship-based surveys. This concept is demonstrated to work in field testing on multiple occasions: with a single AUV autonomously and adaptively tracking the depth range of a thermocline or acousticline, and with two AUVs coordinating their motion to collect a data set in which internal waves could be detected. This research is then taken to the next level by exploring the problem of adaptively and autonomously tracking spatiotemporally dynamic underwater fronts and plumes using individual and autonomously collaborating AUVs.