Deep-towed vehicles for seafloor imaging and sampling off Taiwan

摘要

This paper presents three deep-towed vehicles including the Abyss Twisted-pair Imaging System (ATIS), the Fiber-optical Instrumentation Towed System (FITS), and the Video-guided multi-corer (V-Corer), which were developed under the National Energy Program (NEP) of Taiwan from 2013 to 2016. Both of the vehicles ATIS and FITS were designed mainly for seafloor imaging but with different power and communication systems. The V-Corer, adopting the vision system of the ATIS, was designed for collecting sediment and pore water samples with the assistance of video guidance. Specifications and features of the ATIS, FITS, and V-Corer are described in detail. As well the operations of seafloor imaging and sediment sampling using these vehicles for gas hydrate investigation off southwestern Taiwan and for mineral resource potential investigation off northeastern Taiwan are described. Seafloor survey results for gas hydrate investigations and mineral resources investigations are also presented to show the capabilities of these three deep-towed vehicles.