Des

1. Steps towards autonomy: From current
measurements to underwater vehicles
Gwyn Griffiths
Underwater EM
communication,
Anglesey, 1970.
Institute of Oceanographic
Sciences, Wormley, 1976
Using Doppler sonar to measure speed of
conveyor belt, MSc Birmingham, 1975
gxg@noc.ac.uk

2. 1976-84: At-sea Instrument Technician &
Investigations of Sensor Performance
John Swallow
John Smithers Dr Peter Collar
Neil Brown
MkIII CTD

3. Basic principles understood:
Assessing performance
GRIFFITHS, G & COLLA R, P.G., 1980 Some comparative studies on electromagn etic sensor heads
in laminar and near turbulent flows in a towing tank , pp 323-329 in Oceans '80 , New Yor k
I.E.E.E.

4. 1980:4-level Surface Following Current Meter
P.G. Collar, R.M. Carson and G. Griffiths, 1982. Measurement of near-surface current
from a moored wave-slope follower. Deep Sea Research 30 (1): 63-75.

5. Oban 1982: The smooth and the rough

6. Oban 1983
Speed cm/s Water depth
30m
Near Loch Etive
outflow
Shear between
0.1 and 0.4m
most of the time.
Wind <3m/s.
Shear disappears
Day 315 & Day
319-320.5, with
periods of
stronger wind
~7m/s.
Oh for 4 CT
sensors!
GRIFFITHS, G., 1983 Near shore trials of a four level surfac e-follo wing cur rent mete r, Insititute of
Oceanographic S ciences Internal Docum ent No. 178, 11pp + appendices .

7. 1984-1988: 1MHz Self Contained ADCP
Mk1 Mk2 inc.
GP Sonar
Receiver
Board set
64k memory
24 bit h’ware multiplier
Real time clock
CPU and I/O
8-channel 8 bit ADC
20channel 12 but ADC
Solid state logger
2MByte EPROM card
CPU-Memory-I/O
GRIFFITHS, G. 1990 A microco mputer syste m for use in oceanographic instruments. Unde rwater
Technology, 15(4) , 3-10 .

8. Other Applications of the Board Set

9. May 1985 Irish Sea Deployment
GRIFFITHS, G., 1986 Intercomparison of an acoustic Doppler current profiler with
conventional instruments and a tidal flow model. Proc. IEEE 3 rd Working Conference
on Current Measurement.

10. Acoustic Backscatter from an ADCP
30-day hand coloured contour section in 1986 of acoustic backscatter at the
Celtic Sea shelf edge in the upper 20m in 186m water depth.

11. Towards biological interpretation

12. April 1993
Change from engineer and applied scientist
to
Head Ocean Instrumentation Group

13. The true fathers of the Autosub
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
Dr Brian McCartney Dr Nic Flemming Dr Stuart Rusby
1984-1986
at the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Wormley

14. People of Influence
Prof. John Woods Don Lennard
1986-1994

15. One Vision: To gather data within ocean
cavities beneath floating ice sheets.
Polly Williamson, IOS, 1989

16. Capable Project Leaders
Dr Peter Collar Nick Millard Steve McPhail
1988-1995 1995-2005 2005-

17. Core Engineering Team
Peter Stevenson Miles Pebody Andy Webb James Perrett Maaten Furlong

18. Technical Support
Andy Kevin Mark Dave Jim
Staskiewicz Saw Squires White Wyatt

19. The Reviewers
Sir John Cadogan Sir John (later Lord) Krebs Prof John Shepherd
John Steele

20. Principal Investigators
David Smeed Andy Brierley Peter Wadhams Adrian Jenkins Karen Heywood
Julian Dowdeswell Chris German George Voulgaris Alex Cunningham Steve Thorpe
And others …

21. First Autosub Under Sea Ice Experiment: 2001
Biomass g m-2
Data courtesy A Brierley, P Fernandes and M Brandon

22. Autosub Under Ice Programme
 Shelf Ice
 Formed from snow falling over Antarctica
 Floating extensions of the continental ice sheet
 Fate is biggest uncertainty for sea level rise
 Thickness from 100 m to over 1500 m
Nick MiIllard

23. The Vision delivered: 2009.
Temp (˚C)
Courtesy Pierre Dutrieux, BAS, 2009

24. Closing thoughts
 My role in fostering major programmes for
autonomous vehicle expeditions.
 Initiating, despite opposition, new methods for
risk of loss estimates for AUVs in polar seas.
 The formation in April 2012 of the Marine
Autonomous and Robotic Systems (MARS) facility
at Southampton, with 3 Autosubs and 11 gliders.
 A major capital investment from the Natural
Environment Research Council to secure the
future of MARS.