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Manatee Protection Systems

The Manatee Protection Systems (MPS) Program provides research, design and manufacturing of manatee protection sensor systems for water control structures.

The Florida Manatee is an endangered species under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and the Florida Marine Sanctuary Act of 1978. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service coordinates the Manatee Recovery Plan, and one part of the plan is a reduction of manatee fatalities caused by Flood Control Gates and Navigation Locks.

The MPS Team has developed two solutions in use by the South Florida Water Management District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

• The piezo-electric-detection sensor is designed to prevent manatees from being crushed beneath the vertical-lift gates used for water control along Florida's Southeast coast. The sensor, resembling a speed bump bolted to the concrete canal floor, can reject the turbulent flow of water (and debris) beneath the gate and yet only requires the manatee to contact the bumper with a force of 18 lbs in order to trigger an alarm and open the gate.
• The acoustic detection sensor system is used on the navigation lock gates. An array of sound transmitters are attached to one gate and a matching array of receivers attached to the opposing gate. When the manatee swims between the closing gates, the sound waves in the water are blocked and the alarm triggers the gate to stop and reopen.

MPS sensor development is ongoing.

• Developing and testing of new techniques for next-generation underwater imaging and communications networks using lasers
• Developing and validating advanced electro-optic engineering design and simulation tools for underwater laser imaging and communications system operators and developers
• Developing and transferring novel technologies and techniques from lab demonstrators into fieldable solutions
• Developing novel sensors and data management tools to better characterize the optical properties of ocean water

Ocean Optics

Research Faculty

Fraser Dalgleish, Ph.D.
Bing Ouyang, Ph.D.
James M Sullivan, Ph.D.
Michael Twardowski, Ph.D.
Anni Vuorenkoski Dalgleish, Ph.D.

The Ocean Optics program is a multidisciplinary group studying the interaction of light with the suspended particles, dissolved materials, and water molecules that make up seawater. A better understanding of light propagation in the ocean has several applications in basic and applied research, including:

• satellite remote sensing of ocean color to determine biogeochemical parameters,
• assessing light available for productivity and chemical reactions through the water column and in benthic environments such as coral reefs and seagrass beds,
• predicting underwater visibility and clarity,
• communicating underwater with lasers,
• modeling and optimizing the performance of imaging systems and
• assessing how biological organisms camouflage and how other objects may be camouflaged.

Our work also involves using sensors and models to specifically quantify and characterize the various particulate and dissolved materials in seawater for ocean biogeochemical research areas that include phytoplankton ecology, harmful algal blooms, particle thin layers, sediment transport, air-sea flux and carbon dynamics. Optical sensors can resolve these dynamics over spatial scales ranging from the microscopic to planetary.

Developing transformative optical technologies such as lidar (light detection and ranging), passive and active compressive imaging systems, in-water holographic imaging microscopy and state-of-the-art inherent optical property sensors employing light scattering, absorption and fluorescence to study challenging problems in oceanography is a strong focus area of our group. The Ocean Optics team is highly interdisciplinary with collaborations in the fields of ocean engineering and all primary disciplines of oceanography. We have worked in regions ranging from inland and coastal waters to all of the oceans of the world and our research is supported by NASA, Office of Naval Research, US Coast Guard, NOAA, NSF, NIH, DOE, small businesses, philanthropy from donors, and the HBOI Foundation endowment.

I-SENSE

The Ocean Optics program is an essential component of the university's Institute for Sensing and Embeded Network Systems Engineering. Ocean Optics faculty member Dr. Michael Twardowski leads the Marine and Environment Program in collaboration with I-SENSE Director Jason Hallstrom, Ph.D., and Chief Engineer Jiannan Zhai, Ph.D.

Glider Research & Operation Center

Simplicity is an advantage if you want something to operate reliably for months on end in the oceans. The SPRAY glider does not require a thruster to propel it, dive, or surface; it accomplishes those actions by changing its balance point and its buoyancy.

Easy to deploy, the glider is launched from a boat into the water. Already programmed to carry out its first dive, the glider will roll onto its side, raise one of its two "wings" straight up into the air so that it can use its satellite phone link to register its position.

To dive, the glider makes itself less buoyant and shifts some of its weight forward. This causes it to sink, but its wings cause it to dive at a pre-determined angle. That glide path continues to a maximum depth of 1,000 m (3,280 ft).

To surface again, it makes itself buoyant (lighter than the surrounding water), and it shifts its balance point backward. This makes its nose rise, and again, the wings keep it on an upward glide path.

Once back at the surface, the glider rolls again to lift its wing so that it can link to a satellite and upload the data it has collected during the mission. Once the data have been received, glider technicians monitor its systems, make adjustments and send new mission data.

Spray glider related web sites: