The full proceedings of the Mach 2006 Masterclass in AUV Technology for Polar Science are available as a book from the SUT, together with a companion volume from a 2007 Workshop on the more general topic of AUVs in Extreme Environments.
Back Story: How this Guide came into being
As part of a Natural Environment Research Council grant 'Cooperative Autosub Science in Extreme Environments' Polar and under-ice operations of AUVs were discussed at a 3-day Masterclass of AUV users organised by the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK in March 2006. One of the conclusions of that symposium was that a Best Practices Guide be developed to recommend and document the manner in which under-ice operations could be carried out effectively.
At that time, the ECOR Specialist Panel on Underwater Vehicles took on the task of preparing a Best Practices document. A two day working session was hosted by IFREMER at its Mediterranean facility in La Seyne-sur-Mer in September 2006. At this workshop, both scientific users of AUVs (some with under-ice experience) and AUV developers discussed the manner in which the Best Practices Guide should be developed.
Given the limited experience with AUVs in the polar environment at that time, the consensus was that the site should be evolutionary. It was also agreed the site should contain a historical account of previous AUV missions in polar regions as well as articles and other documents that provide information and experience on Arctic and Antarctic operations.
The original ECOR Polar AUV Best Practice site was in place by spring 2007 and updated for some years but became unavailable when ECOR was absorbed into the Society for Underwater Technology (SUT). This new site under the auspices of the SUT contains the original and updated material gathered by ECOR and, over time, will add new summaries of Polar AUV operations.
