Development of Deep Sea Profiling Float: Challenges

and Technology Demand

P. Muthuvel Tata Sudhakar Nitesh Verma Thangavel C
National Institute of Ocean National Institute of Ocean National Institute of Ocean National Institute of Ocean
Technology Technology Technology Technology
Chennai, India Chennai, India Chennai, India Chennai, India
pmuthuvel@niot.res.in tata@niot.res.in niteshverma@niot.res.in ctv@niot.res.in

Sarojani Maurya Arumugam P M.A. Atmanand

National Institute of Ocean National Institute of Ocean National Institute of Ocean
Technology Technology Technology
Chennai, India Chennai, India Chennai, India
sarojani@niot.res.in arumugam.p@niot.res.in atma@niot.res.in

Abstract— The technology developments towards ocean transformation towards the deep sea profiling has been started
observation have been emerging progressively. The autonomous by few of the Argo float manufacturers and researchers. The
platform of Argo float brought revolution in ocean observation. National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), India is also
The international Argo program facilitates and made possible to involved in design and development of deep sea profiling float.
fill the gaps across the global ocean and enabled continuous
The float is capable of diving up to 5000 m depth with 1000 cc
observation of global ocean in real time for the collective study.
Nevertheless, the present Argo floats technology available up to capacity of variable buoyancy engine. The photo of proto type
subsurface column of 2000 m depth which is only 50 % of deep sea profiling float being developed by NIOT is shown in
average depth of the ocean. The 70 % of ocean coverage in the Fig. 1. The first proto type float is configured for 500 m depth
earth planet will largely influence the earth climate system to obtain the engineering data and fine tune the system for deep
especially the deep ocean plays an import role in earth's climate sea profiling.
system. The complete information of ocean can be explored only
if we have comprehensive study of ocean from top to bottom. The
deep sea profiler float is one of the efforts towards such a
comprehensive observation. In this paper we discussed about the
design and development of deep sea profiling float, its challenges
and technology demand.

Keywords— Argo float, Profiling drifter, deep sea profiling

float, ocean observation.

I. INTRODUCTION
The International Argo program is a collaborative
partnership of more than 30 nations from all continents. India
is one among the other countries who has been actively
participating and contributing an international Argo program
for global ocean observation system. The Argo float
manufacturers and researchers made many improvements and
value additions by introducing biological and chemical sensors,
two-way communication and quick data transmission with
iridium satellite service and fiber glass for pressure hull etc. All
the improvements strengthen the float technology in terms of
extending the research area, flexibility of changing the float
mission remotely from shore station, stay shorter duration at
sea surface, lesser energy for telemetry etc. Nevertheless, the Fig1. Photo of proto type Deep sea float
present autonomous profiling float technology not providing
full ocean column information, hence the next phase of

978-1-5386-1654-3/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

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 II. SYSTEM OVERVIEW
The Deep-sea profiling float works similar to regular Argo
float which is working by adjusting the volume of the float
without altering the weight in order to descend and ascend into
the ocean column. The volume change is accomplished by
pumping the hydraulic oil from internal reservoir to external
rubber bladder. The float retracts the oil from external bladder
to descend up to the profiling depth, and then drift for the
preprogrammed period with active depth control. For
ascending the float pumps the oil to the external bladder to
increase the buoyancy of the float in order to ascend to sea
surface, while ascending the float measure the salinity,
temperature and depth parameters. The collected profile data
will be transmitted to satellite when float surfaces, then the
float commence the next cycle. The onboard embedded
control electronics controls and schedule the entire float
operation. The major components of the system are Instrument
housing, variable buoyancy engine (VBE), CTD sensor &
altimeter, data telemetry system, battery pack and control
electronics. The assembly of deep sea profiling float is shown
in Fig.2
Sensor
Interface port
Data
Telemetry
Control
Electronics
VBE
Battery
Housing
External
Rubber Bladder
Fig.2. Assembly of Deep-sea profiling float
III. DESIGN CHALLENGES & TECHNOLOGY DEMAND FOR DEEP
SEA FLOAT DEVELOPEMNT
The development of profiling float to deeper depth has
many challenges and technology demand. The selection of
miniature components is one of the most challenging activities
in the design. Power consumption becomes the key factor in
components selection for battery operated stand alone systems.
The physical size of a float is also a critical parameter for the
float design, especially in the case of higher depth of operation.
A higher capacity variable buoyancy engine is required to dive
deeper and buoyant in the sea surface. The selection, testing,
qualification and integration of each component and sub-
system like Instrument housing, VBE, Sensor, Data telemetry
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and Battery have many challenges and technology demand for
the development of deep sea float are discussed in details in
the subsequent sections.
A. Instrument Housing
A 17” glass sphere made of borosilicate shown in Fig.3 is
used as a pressure case which is a most optimistic way out for
not using a heavy metal casing. The glass sphere has immense
strength to weight ratio rated for 6700 m depth of operation.
Also the glass sphere is light in weight and economical than the
metal housing. Holes are provided on the glass sphere to
accommodate underwater connectors, vacuum and hydraulic
ports for interfacing the sensor, rubber bladders and satellite
antenna which are mounted outside the instrument housing.
The glass sphere is covered with neutrally buoyant protective
shell made of polyethylene and it act as a guard for the glass
sphere and also to assist mounting. There is a special rubber
shock absorber has been provided between the protective shell
and the glass sphere to protect from the shock and vibration
also it provides proper support to the glass sphere and avoid the
dislocation of the glass sphere inside the protective shell.
Though the glass sphere has many advantages like high
strength and low thermal expansion coefficient and also it is
lightweight, strong and high corrosion-resistant to seawater, it
also provides challenges to the developer especially in
assembly & integration of components inside the glass sphere
and safety while transit. Now the manufacturers are
introducing mounting rings inside the glass sphere to ease this
task. However the rigidity of those mounting rings can be
explored. The opening & closing of instrument housing is also
not an easy task as it is being done with metal or composite
pressure case. There is a technology demand to address these
challenges, it is required to explore other possibilities/options.
Fig. 3. Photo of Instrument housing with protective shell
B. Variable Buoyancy Engine
A high pressure micro axial pump is used and realized the
variable buoyancy engine for 5000 m depth of operation. It is
capable of pumping oil against to the hydrostatic pressure of
5000 d bar. The pump can handle the working fluid (hydraulic
 oil ) viscosity of 15 – 35 cSt and can be operated at maximum
speed of 1000 rpm and delivers 100 ml. Nevertheless in our
development the pump is operated at less speed of 500 rpm to
take care the limitation of lithium battery pulsating and
continues current. A simplified schematic of the variable
buoyancy engine is shown in Fig 4.
Fig.4. Schematics of VBE
The other sub-components of variable buoyancy engine are
miniature electric motor, internal oil reservoir, external rubber
bladder, oil level sensor and customized control valve. To
achieve ascend sequence, the fluid from the internal reservoir
need to be pumped into the external bladder, which will be
exposed to hydrostatic pressure. To minimize the power
consumption and utilize the maximum capacity of battery, the
float pumps the oil gradually in a way that, pumping less
quantity of oil at higher depth and increasing the pumping
action as the float ascends. For the descend cycle oil will be
retracted to the internal reservoir by using a customized high
pressure control valve, which minimize the pumping action and
power consumption of the overall system.
C. Sensors
The main observation of international Argo program is to
monitor the temperature and salinity of subsurface and middle
layers of the ocean. The average life of Argo float which is
diving up to 2000 m is 3 - 4 years and provides 150 profiles,
hence it is essential to have a very stable CTD sensor for the
entire life time of the float at ocean as the recovery and
recalibration is highly difficult and impossible some times. The
accuracy requirement of the float measurement in Argo
program is 0.005°C for the temperature and 0.01 practical
salinity units (psu) for the salinity. The temperature
requirement is relatively easy to attain, while that for salinity is
not easy, due to drift of the conductivity sensor [3] in-spite of
manufactures take extreme care. Two type of CTD sensor is
being used in the Argo float, one is electrode conductivity cell
and other one is inductive conductivity cell, the Seabird offers
pumped CTD ( SBE– 41 / 61 ) which is electrode conductivity
cell whereas FSI and RBR supplies inductive conductivity
cell[7]. The inductive conductivity cell needs to be calibrated
after integrating it on the float system (on the mounting frame /
cap) for getting better result. The power consumption of
pumped CTD is more than the inductive conductivity cell. The
SBE- 41 / 61 CTD sensor sample at 1 Hz and the RBR sensor
samples at 32 Hz [8]. The stability of the sensor which is
integrating with float needs to be more stable for the entire life
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time of the float at sea. Also it should be more accurate, high
resolution in order to monitor the deep ocean water where the
variation is very small. The Seabird and RBR supplying the
CTD sensor for deep sea profiling float, however the overall
performance in terms of long time stability, accuracy,
resolution, power consumption of these need to be explored
for deep sea operation.
D. Data telemetry system
As the float ascends, the float depth, temperature and
salinity are logged onboard memory of the control electronics.
These data are transmitted to satellites when the float reaches
to sea surface. The Argos satellite system is used extensively at
the beginning of the international Argo program. The data
transmission rates are such that to guarantee error free data
reception and location in all weather conditions the float must
spend between 6 - 12 hrs at the surface. Positions are accurate
to ~100 m depending on the number of satellites within the
range and geometry of their distribution. However the Iridium
satellite system is becoming a more attractive option as it
allows more profile data packets to be transmitted with a
shorter period at the surface and two-way communication with
the float. In 2016, 80% of floats were deployed with Iridium
antennas and 20% with Argos antennas [5]. In our deep-sea
profiling float both Argos and INSAT (Indian National
Satellite System) communication are configured for our initial
trials. The INSAT satellite system provides option to transmit
the profile data at shorter duration and keep the float at
minimum time in the sea surface. The exploration of pressure
withstanding antenna for the INSAT communication is in
progress.
E. Battery
At present the battery is the only source for the float
operation. Most of the floats will fail due to low battery or
premature failure of the battery. But the developer and user
spend considerable time and money, hence it is worthwhile to
get maximum number of profiles from the float and provide
longer endurance at ocean. Higher capacity, longer life and
reliability are major concerns of the battery selection and
design. As the battery failure will result in total system failure
for stand-alone systems in remote locations with no back-up
power source. The above requirements will narrow down with
the use of lithium battery pack for the float operation. The
lithium battery provides approximately two times the energy
density and one third of alkaline battery weight. The voltage
over the life of the pack varies considerably less than the
voltage of an alkaline battery. It is low self- discharge and
losing less than 10 % of their capacity in 10 years. Also, the
space occupation by the battery is depends upon the type of
battery and capacity needed to energize the system. As we
need to profile deeper into the ocean with longer endurance,
the requirement of energy from battery is also increasing. The
use of higher density Lithium batteries will help us to
overcome this challenge with limited space occupancy. The
efficient sequence of float operation has been planned to take
care the limitation of battery in order to yield maximum life of
battery. Mostly lithium battery from Tadiran and SAFT have
been using for regular Argo floats. For our deep sea profiling
float, the SAFT LSH20 has been planned to use to meet the
pulsating and continuous current of float. There is a need to
 explore the renewable power source for the float operation to
extend its endurance and enhance the ocean observation by
having additional payloads. Already some research has been
initiated to generate power with temperature gradient of the
ocean column [6] for the float operation with rechargeable
battery pack.
IV. LAKE TRIAL & PERFORMANCE
The proto type deep-sea profiling float is configured for
500 m depth to obtain the float engineering parameters and fine
tune the system for 5000 m depth of operation. After the
laboratory and pressure testing, the float was ballasted for the
fresh water deployment in the lake. The float is integrated with
RBR CTD sensor and Argos satellite telemetry. For quick
profile, the float was deployed initially with 6 hrs mission
cycle and subsequently the float mission cycle was modified to
24 hrs cycle and tested the float at the depth of ~110 m in fresh
water lake.
Fig.5 Photo of lake trial
Fig.6 Temperature profile of lake.
During the lake trial, the engineering parameters of float
were obtained for fine tuning the system. The temperature and
salinity profile obtained during the lake trial at Idukki dam,
Kerala , India as shown in Fig.6 & 7.
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Fig.7 Salinity profile of lake.
V. CONCLUSION
As it is important and essential to explore the deep ocean
for comprehensive observation of ocean in real time for earth
climate studies. Hence the deep sea profiling float technology
needs to be available to the scientific community. NIOT has
started developing the deep sea profiling float in phased
manner. The prototype float was tested extensively and
completed the initial test in the lake at 110 m depth and
performance was found to be promising. The challenges &
technology demands toward the development were discussed
in detail.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Ministry of Earth Sciences
(MoES), Govt of India for supporting and funding this
development. The authors are grateful to Naval Physical &
Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) Cochin, India, for
providing their test facility for the lake trials. Also the authors
thankful to Mr. Bennet Rajkumar for his immense support for
realization of sub-components developments
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[5] http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/How_Argo_floats.html
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