Russian scientists from the St. Petersburg Federal Research Center (SPb FRC) of the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed an automated control system for a device for sampling the river and lake bottom.
This was reported to RT in the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science.
The invention is planned to be patented - the corresponding application has already been registered.
As the authors of the work note, the study of the bottom of water areas is important for studying the flora and fauna of water bodies, obtaining data on the chemical composition of bottom sediments and the level of pollution of water areas.
As a mechanical basis, the inventors took the DAK-250 bottom grab, which consists of two buckets connected by an axis, which are lowered from the side of the vessel into the water on a cable and burrow into the bottom under their own weight.
The device is triggered after the operator sends a special weight down the tensioned cable.
If the work is carried out at great depths (200-300 m), then the launch weight can move along the cable for a long time, up to three minutes.
In this case, the cable must remain taut all the time, otherwise the mechanical bottom grab will work empty.
Under conditions of rolling with a wave height of about two meters, it is impossible to take samples with a conventional bottom grab, the authors of the work note.
Sample from the bottom of the water area
© Press Service of the Ministry of Education and Science
To solve these problems, scientists equipped the device with an electromechanical control system and sensors - an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a high-precision barometric sensor, and an electronic thermometer.
The system is controlled by a microcontroller, which also provides data storage and wireless communication.
At the same time, automatic equipment is responsible for triggering the buckets in this case, which allows you to quickly capture sufficient volumes of bottom soil.
In addition, the automated system allows obtaining data on the mechanical properties of the soil, the exact depth and layer-by-layer temperature values from the sampling point to the surface.
This data is transmitted to the surface via a wireless interface.
“We have developed a bottom grab control system, which, unlike existing analogs, can evaluate the characteristics of the soil and the correctness of the position at the bottom and independently make a decision on the triggering of buckets that capture the sample, which practically eliminates unsuccessful or incorrect operation of the device and, accordingly, eliminates empty bottom grab lifts and additional descents, ”explained Mikhail Dudakov, an employee of the laboratory of complex problems of limnology of the Institute of Lake Science (INOS) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (a separate structural subdivision of the St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences), in an interview with RT.
The scientist said that the authors of the work had already tested the device in Lake Ladoga at depths of up to 150 m. At the same time, the maximum depth at which the device can operate is 300 m. The researchers got good results - if earlier out of 100 attempts to take samples from the bottom of the reservoir, they were unsuccessful 30–40, then the use of a “smart” vehicle control system made it possible to reduce this figure to 3–4.
Checking the electronic elements of the bottom grab
© Press Service of the Ministry of Education and Science
Now the developers are improving the software of the device, as well as filling the database on the operation of the bottom grab on various types of soils in various operating conditions.
This will further improve work efficiency.
“Such capabilities of the device can be used by different groups of scientists who conduct limnological studies, as well as ecologists in the study of various pollutants in water bodies,” Mikhail Dudakov summed up.