BathyBot/BathyReef - A rover and its docking station to study the abyss
Beyond a thousand meters, we are in the deep ocean, quickly plunged into total darkness.
Little studied, this vast space is the scene of unprecedented phenomena. It is here that organic carbon is transformed into inorganic carbon, setting in motion processes that have an impact on climate change and of which we do not yet know all the details. How to quantify these flows in an environment where, as we descend, the temperature decreases while the pressure increases, making it more difficult to take samples. How to study the bioluminescent organisms that inhabit the depths?
Today, the development of the Bathybot rover and its BathyReef hosting platform, which will be deployed at a depth of 2500 meters from January 30, 2022 during the EMSO-LO campaign, will allow to study the biological communities living at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea and the oceanographic physico-chemical parameters (oxygenation, temperature, salinity...). They will complete an instrumented line, called Albatross, deployed along the water column.
The benthic underwater robot BathyBot, developed by the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanology, is equipped with caterpillar tracks to move along the sedimentary bottom and is controlled by computer from the coast. It is equipped with probes for real-time measurements and two cameras, one of which will scan the bioluminescence with such sensitivity that its only illumination will be a red light known not to frighten deep-sea organisms.
A 70 m cable linking the rover to its Bathyreef "docking station" will connect it to the LSPM network, for control and data collection.
BathyReef, born from the collaboration of the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanology and the Rougerie+Tangram Lab, was built by the Vicat group. It forms a ramp and reveals a space large enough for Bathybot to position itself and make observations.
It was designed in concrete, an inert material, which limits its impact on the deep environment and its shape offers organisms an easily colonizable artificial reef.
A scientific junction box (BJS) will allow the connection of new instruments to the observatory. More than a multi-socket adapted to deep sea conditions, it is a complex "intelligent network" that ensures the transmission of energy to the instruments and the sending of the collected data to the continent.
The BJS will be launched first. Only after it has been connected and checked for proper operation will the first four instruments be deployed and connected to the BJS. Scientists will then be able to control them from their laboratories and access the environmental data acquired in real time.
You can follow the deployment of Bathybot and Bathyreef in real time on twitter and on the website of the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanology.
Follow the adventures of this extraordinary rover from January 30th. In the meantime, take note of the large echo that the press made to the project.