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The Fiber Optic Reel System: A Compact Deployment Solution for Tethered Live-Telemetry Deep-Sea Robots and Sensors



Details

  • Journal Title:
    Sensors
  • Personal Author:
    Phillips, Brennan T. ORCID ICON IMG ; Chaloux, Nicholas ; Shomberg, Russell ; Muñoz-Soto, Adriana ; Owens, Jim
  • NOAA Program & Office:
    NOAA General Documents
  • Description:
    Tethered deep-sea robots and instrument platforms, such as Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and vertical-profiling or towed instrument arrays, commonly rely on fiber optics for real-time data transmission. Fiber optic tethers used for these applications are either heavily reinforced load-bearing cables used to support lifting and pulling, or bare optical fibers used in non-load bearing applications. Load-bearing tethers directly scale operations for deep-sea robots as the cable diameter, mass, and length typically require heavy winches and large surface support vessels to operate, and also guide the design of the deep-sea robot itself. In an effort to dramatically reduce the physical scale and operational overhead of tethered live-telemetry deep-sea robots and sensors, we have developed the Fiber Optic Reel System (FOReelS). FOReelS utilizes a customized electric fishing reel outfitted with a proprietary hollow-core braided fiber optic fishing line and mechanical termination assembly (FOFL), which offers an extremely small diameter (750 μm) load-bearing (90 lb/400 N breaking strength) tether to support live high-bandwidth data transmission as well as fiber optic sensing applications. The system incorporates a novel epoxy potted data payload system (DPS) that includes high-definition video, integrated lighting, rechargeable battery power, and gigabit ethernet fiber optic telemetry. In this paper we present the complete FOReelS design and field demonstrations to depths exceeding 780 m using small coastal support vessels of opportunity. FOReelS is likely the smallest form factor live-telemetry deep-sea exploration tool currently in existence, with a broad range of future applications envisioned for oceanographic sensing and communication.
  • Keywords:
  • Source:
    Sensors, 21(7), 2526
  • DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.3390/s21072526
  • ISSN:
    1424-8220
  • Format:
    PDF
  • Publisher:
    MDPI AG
  • Document Type:
    Journal Article
  • License:
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
  • Rights Information:
    CC BY
  • Compliance:
    Library
  • Download URL:
    https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/64256/noaa_64256_DS1.pdf
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 4.12 MB]
  • Collection(s):
    NOAA General Documents
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:03ce20a435fbfe2908f67b1db2ce2bbb8ba7883199a79395927b5414707c0e72b77e05548bb0b04019eda530a531fcef20a4818f3fc44bc0a3a0768e91157233
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