Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

AML Oceanographic is a marine technology company that specializes in the design, development and marketing of advanced oceanographic sensors. The company recently added a Moving Vessel Profiling (MVP) winch to its product line, which can be installed and operated from offshore survey vessels for deployment of a variety of oceanographic sensors. The main application of the MVP winch is deployment of a sound speed profiling (SVP) sensor for continuous, real-time measurement of the water column during collection of multibeam echosounder (MBES) data. This offers improved correction of sound speed changes for better-quality MBES data acquisition. AML and the NSCC Applied Oceans Research Group (AORG) will work together to evaluate the feasibility of integrating a high-resolution camera, and appropriate lighting into the sensor towbody of the MVP. This would offer new functionality to the MVP, measuring both sound velocity through the water column, and collecting imagery of the seafloor at the bottom of each cast while the vessel is underway. Such imagery can be used to ground truth seafloor characteristics for subsequent interpretation of the MBES data for geological and seafloor habitat mapping - thus introducing significant efficiencies into seafloor survey. Commercial benefits to MVP customers arising from these survey efficiencies would be significant, allowing expansion of MVP sales globally. Ultimately, the collaboration will lead to advances in ocean floor sensing technologies with national and international benefits.