About:

 

John Cluderay

Embedded software and electronics engineer specializing in producing bespoke oceanographic instruments from initial concept to product delivery. Currently working within the Marine Technology Electronics department at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) where diverse projects are regularly undertaken to meet the needs of over 200 scientists at the institute.

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Index

• Autonomous Vehicle MOVE
• Oxygen Profiler
• Time Difference of Arrival Tracking
• Surface Skimmer
• Optical Backscatter and Transmission Instrument
• Stereo 3D Underwater Camera Survey System

 

Autonomous Vehicle MOVE

This vehicle was designed and built at Royal NIOZ. It navigates autonomously at up to 6km depth for 9 months, visiting 30 waypoints and incorporating over 12 scientific payloads. Measurements include: water oxygen, sediment oxygen, turbidity, fluorescence, 3D current, video, sound, water sampling, incubations,  pressure, salinity, temperature. Weight in air is 1800Kg.

Responsibilities

• Realize the project as part of a development team at Royal NIOZ.
• New scientific payload electronic build and embedded software design.
• Extensive testing and debugging.
• Maintain and service the vehicle during deployment and recovery from research vessels at sea.

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Oxygen Profiler

This is a unique payload for the autonomous vehicle MOVE. It uses fiber optic probes to measure in-situ oxygen profiles into benthic sediments. A mechanical arm extends from the MOVE vehicle and lowers a 'nano-lander' tripod onto undisturbed sediment. From the tripod lander several oxygen probes are inserted into the sediment in micrometer size steps while data are acquired and logged. Each fiber optic probe is held in a titanium needle and measures oxygen at the tip which is only a few micrometers across. This device was designed and built at Royal NIOZ.

Responsibilities

• Realize the project as part of a development team at Royal NIOZ.
• Embedded software design.
• Electronic hardware build.
• Maintain and service the oxygen profiler during deployment and recovery from research vessels at sea.

 

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Surface Skimmer

A catamaran was converted to allow remotely operated sailing and sampling. Study of air-sea interface biochemistry required samples to be taken at the surface and at depths of 10, 100 and 200cm. A rotating glass drum was used for skimming the top-layer while the sub-surface samples were simultaniously taken. All navigation, sampling and storage was controlled remotely.

Responsibilities

• Realize the project as part of a development team at Royal NIOZ.
• Embedded software design.
• Electronic and electrical hardware build.
• Maintain and service all aspects of catamaran when deployed from research vessels at sea.

 

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Time Difference of Arrival Tracking

 2011 Waddensea, 2012 Friesland, 2013 Mauritania

View press release TDOA Mauritania campaign

An advanced radio tag system for tracking wildlife in real time was developed at Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithica, USA. Close collaboration with Royal NIOZ developed the system further for a large scale implementation to track birds on the Dutch Wadden Sea during 2011, Friesland in 2012, and Mauritania 2013.

Geo-location was achieved by advanced TDOA (Time Difference Of Arrival) techniques. This succeeded in spatially tracking 50 tags simultaneously over an area exceeding 100SqKm at a rate of 1Hz per tag.

The Mauritanian expedition was the third and most successful deployment of the TDOA tracking network since 2011. Over 60 million data reception events were captured in a period of 5 weeks.

Responsibilities

• Work in collaboration with Cornell Lab of Ornithology USA and Marine Ecology at Royal NIOZ to realize field studies of 50 tagged birds on the Dutch Wadden Sea 2011, Friesland 2012, and Mauritania 2013.
• Optimize miniature radio tags for harsh ocean environment.
• Production of over 200 tag units.
• Design and implement 9 autonomous receiver towers on land and at sea.
• Integrate many components on each tower including RF parts, DSP boards, Linux computers, power management, and GPRS modems.
• Implement GPRS backhaul of data from each tower to a server at Royal NIOZ on Texel, where a database was successfully populated with near real time data describing the geo-location of each tag.
• Harvest wind and solar energy to achieve power autonomy.
• Field technician on all 3 deployments.
• Collaborate on a technical strategy for each successive campaign.

 

 

Index

Optical Backscatter and Transmission Instrument

2013 Under Development

This is a new optical backscatter and transmission instrument being designed at NIOZ Marine Technology Electronics. The printed circuit board will be housed in a water tight enclosure before use in the environment.

Responsibilities

• Realize the project as part of a development team at Royal NIOZ.
• Writing embedded C code for the MSP430 microcontroller.

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Stereo 3D Underwater Camera Survey System

2013 Under Development

This is a custom designed system to allow underwater 3D surveys to be made at depths of up to 100m, to be operated in situ by a SCUBA diver, or towed behind a boat.

The system uses two high resolution full sensor Nikon D800 still cameras to produce closely synchronized stereoscopic images, thereby allowing the linear dimensions of survey objects to be determined. Also included are two video cameras for live forward and downward views, two TTL flashes for illumination, and two lasers for targeting and real time object sizing. Live data from the two Nikon still cameras is combined with the two video camera streams and brought to the surface using a single fibre optic cable. The acquisition of 3D images can be made directly by the SCUBA diver or remotely from the surface.

The system components are now proven and awaiting housing for underwater deployment and tests.

Responsibilities

• Design, development and delivery of system (excluding mechanical housing).

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