(L-R) Dr. Amit Tandon, Dr. Ruolin Zhou, Dr. Lauren Freeman, Dr. Oliver Sun and Patrick Pasteris with Aurelia

After a successful proposal to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Marine and Undersea Technology Program V (MUST V), Tandon Labs kicked off its first meeting for the continued development  of the Aurelia Upper Ocean Profilers. In attendance were two NUWC partners Lauren Freeman and Oliver Sun, the co-principal investigators Dr. Amit Tandon and Dr. Ruolin Zhou, as well as Research Technician and Aurelia inventor Patrick Pasteris.

The kickoff meeting signifies the beginning of 3 years of funding towards the continue development of the Aurelia UOP, which is a low-cost ultra-lightweight buoyancy vehicle being developed at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The profiler is focused on the upper 200m of the ocean and is meant to be an inexpensive alternative to the high-cost deep ocean profilers currently being deployed.

Over the course of this program, the Aurelia UOP will see a complete redesign of the electrical system into a single circuit board to ease production and assembly, increase reliability and also reduce power consumption. The software system will also receive a large upgrade, with multiple ease-of-use implementations planned including a brand new user-interface, real-time data visualization as well as improved mission planning and data offloading. The mechanical system isn’t being overlooked; a parking brake mechanism as well as the exploration of form factors and other improvements to the buoyancy pump will be investigated and implemented.