RESEARCH THEMES

We develop coordinated multi-vehicle systems that combine autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) to expand the spatial and temporal scope of ocean observations. Our research addresses the full autonomy stack — from energy-optimal path planning and depth-seeking behaviors for extended AUV endurance (Young et al., 2024) to USV motion modeling and predictive power management in dynamic sea states (Springman et al., 2025). Autonomy behaviors are further informed by environmental awareness — onboard acoustic models enable vehicles to adapt communications and sensing strategies in real time based on ocean conditions (McCarthy et al., 2025). This work enables coordinated USV/AUV sampling missions where surface and subsurface platforms operate together to characterize ocean environments that would be inaccessible to single-platform approaches.

We study the physical processes governing coastal and nearshore circulation, with a focus on observational approaches to current and tidal dynamics and wave-current interactions. Our research examines how waves interact with background currents and tides in the coastal zone (Ho et al., 2023), and how wave energy propagates and transforms around islands — work with direct relevance to coastal hazard assessment and community resilience (Merrifield et al., 2019). Field observations are complemented by numerical modeling and data-driven approaches, spanning environments from Pacific islands to the U.S. coastline.

We develop and deploy AUVs with integrated acoustic and optical payloads to survey and characterize the seafloor across a range of applications. Machine learning applied to optical, sidescan, and synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) imagery enables automated seabed classification and object detection from large, high-resolution datasets. Our surveys span environmental assessment of deep-ocean dump sites (Merrifield et al., 2023) to humanitarian missions — through Project Recover, we have applied these autonomous survey capabilities to locate crash sites and recover remains of WWII servicemen missing in the Pacific (Terrill et al., 2017).

We develop and validate remote sensing methods for observing ocean surface processes across a range of platforms and modalities. Our work with shore-based and shipboard X-band radar enables retrieval of surface currents, wave directional spectra, and internal wave signatures in the coastal zone (Celona et al., 2021; Campana et al., 2017). We use high-frequency (HF) radar for process studies of surface current structure, submesoscale dynamics, and coastal circulation (Kim et al., 2011). Wave buoy observations are extended using satellite radar altimetry to characterize wave climates during extreme events such as extratropical cyclones and hurricanes, where in-situ measurements alone are spatially limited (Lodise et al., 2024).