Heterogeneous Robotic Water Quality Monitoring

This paper describes experiments that tested the effect of 
robotic movement on the reliability of aquatic sensor readings. 
It also demonstrates the utility of a heterogeneous 
system of robots to advance limnological monitoring and research.
An Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) and 
an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), both equipped 
with multiparameter water quality sondes, were deployed weekly 
in Lake Sunapee, NH, to collect routine measurements 
horizontally over the water surface and vertically 
in the water column, respectively.
We then compared the robot-collected data with data 
from fixed underwater instrument platforms (buoys) outfitted 
with a complementary suite of sensors as well as 
manually collected samples. The question we are answering are as follows:

* How do robotic motions affect water quality sensor response time?
* How do water quality measurements compare between robots and fixed-location buoys?
* How can robotic coverage paths best complement and extend monitoring data from discrete water samples (i.e., chlorophyll-a concentrations)?