Who We Are
The Undersea Vehicles Program (UVP) is a part of the oceanographic operations support division at UNCW's Center for Marine Science. UVP supports undersea research with a variety of robotic vehicles. These fly away, medium sized remotely operated vehicle (ROV) systems can be deployed rapidly and are operated by two experienced staff. The Mohawk ROV can provide georeferenced HD video and digital still photography documentation, in addition to multiple sample collections for a variety of scientific objectives including:
- Multibeam Ground Truth
- Habitat Characterization
- Marine Archeology
- Biological Behavior Monitoring
- Site Reconnaissance
An assortment of tools are available with the ROV, in addition to integration of scientist provided equipment, to provide a multi use platform capable of supporting a wide range of tasks including:
- Search and Recovery
- Sample Recovery
- Sonar and Acoustics
- Test Platform
UVP also operates a Slocum glider Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for the collection of physical ocean water data.
UVP at Work
Below is a timelapse video created by the UVP team during a mission to the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. This sequence depicts a typical day in the life at sea as an ROV pilot.
Mission Statement
The Undersea Vehicles Program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington is dedicated to providing efficient undersea intervention with experienced remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) support.
With over 28 years of conducting undersea research, the UVP team possesses the skills and knowledge required to perform extensive end-to-end mission coordination and logistics, professional vehicle operations, and quality data collection.
UVP is uniquely qualified to provide access to and expertise associated with specialized ocean exploration and research vehicles, systems, and sensors to conduct ocean exploration, research, training, and technology development.
Links:
- Mohawk ROV support of CIOERT research on Mesophotic Coral Reef Ecosystems
- ROV research support at Pulley Ridge
- Mohawk ROV operations on the R/V Manta
- NOAA Caribbean Mapping on the Nancy Foster
Related Documents:
- Day Rates (PDF)
- UVP Operations and Procedures Manual (PDF)
Research Missions Supported:
- Peer reviewed journal reference list involving UVP's ROV's
- Technical reports reference list involving UVP's ROV's
- NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science
- NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service
- NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries Program
- U.S. Geological Survey
- National Science Foundation
- Florida Institute of Oceanography
- University of South Florida
- Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium
- University of Southern Mississippi
- University of Washington
- Scripps Institute of Oceanography