“MONACA” Recovered After Six Days
After days of searching, the autonomous underwater robot “MONACA” has been successfully recovered. The vehicle had been missing since a navigation test on March 15 as part of the 67th Japanese Antarctic Expedition.
The robot, developed by the University of Tokyo and the National Institute of Polar Research, is an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) specifically designed for operations beneath Antarctic sea ice. The goal of the current mission was to complete, for the first time, a longer cable-free route of up to two kilometers.
During the test on March 15, “MONACA” initially completed several runs as planned. Around midday, the acoustic positioning system indicated that the vehicle had surfaced. However, there was no visual confirmation. Experts assume that MONACA became trapped beneath an ice floe after ice, wind, and currents shifted unexpectedly.
Despite repeated acoustic control commands instructing the vehicle to dive again and surface elsewhere, “MONACA” could not be located. The search continued until the evening of the same day but was unsuccessful. Coordinated search operations over the following days also failed to find the vehicle, leading to the operation being temporarily suspended on March 19.
A surprising turn came during the night of March 20: a GPS signal was received via the vehicle’s Iridium beacon. This indicated that “MONACA” had managed to break through the sea ice and reach the surface.
On the morning of March 21, the team set out together with the crew of the research vessel toward the reported position. At around 8:20 a.m., the robot’s small red antenna was spotted at a distance of about 800 meters. Recovery began shortly afterward and was completed successfully, with no damage to the vehicle.
The incident highlights the challenges of deploying autonomous systems in extreme environments. At the same time, the mission provides valuable data on the behavior of such vehicles under real-world conditions and is expected to contribute to improving future operations.
Heiner Kubny, PolarJournal
