The Innerspace 6000 TIA Towed Instrument Array

A 6,000-meter towed vehicle system owned by Global Oceans has been redesigned and will be built and deployed as the new Innerspace 6000 TIA (Towed Instrument Array) to complement and extend Innerspace research capacity (Figure 1). The design of the new towed system features high resolution imaging and lighting for seabed surveys, biogeochemical sensors, multibeam sonar (MBES), and sample collection.

The TIA vehicle will also host an array of sensors and samplers for Innerspace scientists as an open source platform and will feature precision attitude and altitude control and steadiness, a high-precision Inertial Navigation System (INS), precision geodetic positioning, autonomous behavior, collision avoidance, and fault management.

A planned biosampling instrument, the Modular Autonomous Biosampler 2 (MAB2) (Figure 2) embedded within TIA’s body will enable broad sweep sampling of plankton and microbial species through the water column, size-sorted, preserved, and stored in situ over targeted habitats such as hydrothermal vent plumes and methane seeps.

MAB2 design (Figure 2) is based on a system built by scientists at the University of Delaware and Cellula Robotics, LLC, both Innerspace collaborators. Integration of dual miniaturized MAB2 biosamplers into the TIA vehicle is part of the planned rebuild of the towed system. The TIA system will sample through sweeps over hydrothermal plumes, methane seeps, hypersaline brine pools, and other habitats. External sampling ports on the TIA will bring water samples to the internally-mounded MAB2. 

Additional configuration and design features for sampling modalities will be explored through Working Group workshops and user recommendations.