Agenda Session

Orpheus Ocean, born out of a collaboration between WHOI and NASA JPL, is introducing a new paradigm for scalable deep ocean and seafloor data collection. In this talk we begin with a brief overview of the capabilities and novel design philosophy behind the Orpheus AUV, which enables autonomous seabed interaction, rapid and low-cost environmental survey, and long duration monitoring. We then review learnings from recent pilot missions undertaken by the vehicle in the Marianas region of the Pacific, and in the Cook Islands, in which we demonstrated our capability to produce high resolution photomosaics and autonomously collect sediment core samples at depths of up to 5000m. Finally, we discuss the potential applications of the Orpheus approach to emerging offshore industries, including deep sea mining, offshore wind, subsea cable construction, and seabed defense & surveillance.