Review of Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (AUV) Developments 
NURP's science programs are carried out by a series of regional centers around the nation. 
Projects are selected by peer-review, thus, opening up opportunities for undersea support to all 
of the nation's science community. Presently, the regional centers include (figure 28): 
e Caribbean: Perry Foundation's Caribbean Marine Research Center 
e Hawaii _ and the Western Pacific: University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii Undersea 
Research Laboratory 
Mid-Atlantic Bight: Rutgers University 
West Coast and Polar Regions: University of Alaska at Fairbanks 
North Atlantic and Great Lakes: University of Connecticut-Avery Point 
Southeast and Gulf of Mexico: University of North Carolina at Wilmington 
GG North Anlantic & Great Lakes 
C7 Somheastem US. & the Gulf of Medco 
C7 Caribbem 
CJ Hywaii & the Pacific 
C7) Vest Coast & Polar Regiors 
Figure 28. NURP Regional Centers 
NURP operates undersea robots or remotely operated vehicles ROVs that are deployed from 
ships of opportunity. NURP provides access to a variety of ROVs, some leased and some 
owned by the program. NURP's ROVs have worked from the tropics to the Arctic and Antarctic. 
The manipulator arm of the Kraken, a Deep Sea Systems International MAXRover MK1, the 
largest of the center's ROVs with a depth capability of 940 meters (3,000 feet), works like the 
arms and hands of a human body to pick up specimens and place them in containers. Kraken's 
suction samplers collect algae, animals, and sediments. Three video cameras on the Kraken 
wide-angle, close-up, low-light, and 35-mm-film camera with a flash allow for high-resolution 
imaging and photography. A laser determines the size of objects underwater, and a scanning 
sonar uses sound to view objects and organisms outside the range of the cameras. NURP also 
operates smaller ROVs like the MiniRover and the Phantom S-2, which carry less weight and 
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