FlexMoT - a flexible and adaptable environmental monitoring platform for offshore applications

This paper describes design, development and results from at sea tests of the FlexMoT (Flexible Monitoring Tool) monitoring platform. The goal of the project was the development of a stable and compact sensor platform with integrated vertical water column profiling, integrating new and precise chemical and physical sensors. The developed system offers a cost-efficient, easy-to-use and fast deployable underwater environmental monitoring solution with a high temporal and depth resolution. It is intended for near-real time environmental monitoring of remote, impacted and sensitive marine environments and addresses primarily non-scientific users. This paper gives an overview of the overall approach of the FlexMoT system and the system integration (hardware, software, sensors). Some of the developed core components will also be described in detail, namely the universal carrier system, the vertical profiling mechanism with a head buoy, the low impedance buoyancy, the wireless power and data transfer unit, the long-term power battery supply and the residue-free recovery concept. Additionally, a short summary of the dedicated modular data management and visualization software system for near real-time monitoring and data analysis is given. Finally, the paper reports on the conducted tests.