Development of a Novel Seismic Acquisition System Based on Fully Autonomous Gliding Ocean Bottom Nodes

This paper describes the development of a novel seismic acquisition system based on fully autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that function as ocean bottom nodes (OBNs). The objective is to remove the need for costly remotely operated vehicles and/or ropes, so that OBN acquisition can become more efficient and, therefore, more affordable. This can be achieved using units with long endurance, which are able to self-relocate to pre-determined positions without direct surface control, and are simple to scale to large inventories. These characteristics enable continuous rolling of the receiver patch at speeds sufficient for the source vessel to avoid waiting.