EurEx-LUNa

From March 20 to April 2, 2022 five DFKI scientists traveled to the small northern Swedish town of Abisko in the national park of the same name on Lake Torneträsk. There, north of the Arctic Circle, with outside temperatures around minus 10 degrees, the AUV autonomously explored the frozen lake, which is up to 168 meters deep. The researchers were housed in a research station in Abisko for the duration of the field trials. Main goal was to prove the feasibility of the concept for autonomous under-ice navigation and docking. Once launched by the mobile crane, the hole in the ice allows only a brief glimpse of the three-meter-long system while it dives down and disappears completely under the ice shell conducting its exploration mission and navigating back to the docking station, where it can transmit the data it has collected and recharge its batteries. The field trials were a complete succes with the AUV and support equipment working nearly flawlessly and a total of 50 hours spent on missions under the ice. The main goal, demonstration of the feasibility of the docking and navigation procedure under realistic conditions could be achieved already on the first few days so there was ample time to collect scientific datasets and explore the lake.