LanderPick, a Remotely Operated Towed Vehicle to Cost-Effectively Deploy and Recover Oceanographic Landers

Abstract Benthic landers are structures equipped with a miscellanea of sensors which are placed right at the seabed and operate autonomously for a defined time frame. One drawback of landers intended for extended operation is the high cost of recovery systems, which typically rely on buoyancy modules and expendable ballast. The LanderPick concept involves the design of a specific remotely operated towed vehicle (ROTV) to deploy and recover benthic landers devoid of built-in recovery elements but equipped with a recapture mesh for easy hitching. The LanderPick vehicle is controlled in real time through a standard coaxial electromechanical cable and is equipped with a low-light high-definition camera, spotlights, and small propellers to assist in approach maneuvers. A mechanical release mechanism allows for both the precise placement of landers as a payload and their recovery using a triple hook system/grapnel. A proof-of-concept prototype of the LanderPick vehicle was built in 2020. A second-generation vehicle followed in 2022 along with an ambitious fleet of landers of various designs and instrumental payloads to support cost-effective sustained monitoring of Spanish marine regions. About 200 successful operations have been conducted at depths ranging from 50 to 1500 m. These operations encompass short-term deployments for time-lapse photos, mid- to long-term arrays of landers at locations with complex topography such as canyons and seamounts, and larger fleets to cover wide portions of the continental shelf/slope. This innovative cost-effective approach allows for the development of monitoring systems based on deploying swarms of low-cost landers and the conduction of experiments requiring precise lander positioning. Significance Statement Sustained monitoring of the ocean represents a widely recognized objective of the international community, posed by the United Nations, which requires the development of efficient technological solutions. The deep-ocean seafloor is an important, and difficult to reach, target. An established approach consists in placing structures devised for autonomous operation directly on the seabed, so-called landers; however, traditional systems to deploy and recover them are complex and expensive. We have developed a cost-efficient novel approach to deploy/recover oceanographic landers based on a fit-for-purpose remotely operated towed vehicle (ROTV) that carries landers as payload. This system, which benefits from current developments in positioning and navigation control of modern oceanographic vessels, has shown functionality in the field in a variety of scenarios.