Vertical payload profiling from a wave propelled unmanned surface vehicle

This thesis examines the proof of concept and development of a modular sensor payload winch system for use on unmanned surface vehicles. A winch system has been designed for integration onto Liquid Robotics Inc.'s Wave Glider SV2 and SV3 vehicle platforms. Short duration ocean deployments of the winch-mounted Wave Glider system were conducted off the coast of Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, CA. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the system performance via data collected during these deployments.