The Robot Award

Jury’s Special Award
Offshore and underwater robot systems
that make a mothership-less seafloor
survey system possible
Team KUROSHIO
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology; Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo;
Kyushu Institute of Technology; National Institute of Maritime+ Port and Aviation Technology;
Mitsui E&S Shipbuilding; Nippon Marine Enterprises; KDDI Research, and Yamaha Motor

Bringing together technology from eight institutions
from industry, academia, and government.
Ranked number two in the world■Outline

2019, of the 32 entries from around the world, Team KUROSHIO wastransported and deployed to the sea by a manned support vessel

off the coast of Greece on the seafloor of the Mediterranean. The AUV

Typically, uderwater robots used for seafloor surveys areand controlled by acoustic communication from the vessel. In orderto further expand the use of underwater robots, Team KUROSHIO

developed a mothership-less seafloor survey system which enables
surveying of the seafloor using only robots without using amothership. The system consists of an Autonomous Surface Vehicle(ASV), multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), and aland-based station, and the operator remotely monitors andcontrols the ASV and AUV via satellite communications.

the only team from Asia to compete in the finals held in December 2018
towed by the ASV was detached offshore, and spent over 23 hours
conducting seafloor research. 30km offshore from the port, in water

about 1,000m deep, the survey succeeded in producing a topographic

map of the seafloor covering an area of 5km by 33.5km. As a result ofthe evaluation by the judging panel, Team KUROSHIO was awarded
second place (The Grand Prize Runner-Up). This achievement

demonstrated to the world the high level of Japan’s marine robotics
technology and was widely reported in Japan and abroad.

This system developed by Team KUROSHIO has the potential to■Features of the system

respond to national-level issues such as seafloor topography surveys,

AUVs using the ASV, a towing frame was developed that can beinstalling and maintaining equipment installed offshore, under the sea,

As the system has no mothership, in order to transport and deploy
customized to suit the AUVs to be transported. The towing frame is abuoyant body equipped with a mechanism to hold AUVs at twopoints and can transport AUVs of various shapes while cooling them

but also to private sector needs such as searching for lost objects, andor on the seafloor, such as submarine cables, offshore wind power
generation facilities, and more.

with seawater. The AUVs and ASV can communicate wirelessly

during transportation, and when the AUVs are detached from theTelecommunications
satellite

Land-basedstation

towing frame, they will automatically start diving and surveying.

Base station

In this system, the ASV is equipped with a satellite communication
device and an underwater communication device that can be used

to remotely control an AUV even after it is submerged. The AUVs

and ASV are guided so that the AUV is always within a certain range

ASV tows
the AUVs

Towing frame

directly under the ASV so that they can stay within communication
range. In underwater acoustic communication, it may not get

through depending on the environment, so a new underwater

Undersea acoustic
communication

acoustic message communication technology was developed toenhance communication stability by transferring communicationfrom the AUV that receives the message, to other AUVs.

Acoustic ocean floor mapping■Achievements and developments

The Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, the first-ever international

competition for unmanned underwater research, held from 2016 toConcept illustration of the offshore and undersea robot system

Contact:

Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology

Address: 2-15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka, Kanagawa
Takeshi Nakatani, Research Platform Operation Development Department
Tel: 046-867-9442 E-mail: kuroshiopr@jamstec.go.jp
THE 9TH ROBOT AWARD

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