Real-world marine deployments that validate autonomous sensing, communication, and energy harvesting.
PEARL has been deployed across multiple real-world marine environments to validate long-duration autonomous sensing, communication, and energy harvesting capabilities.
Concept view of PEARL supporting inbound and outbound AUV operations with solar power and satellite communications.
Early prototype deployments were conducted in Deep Pond, Orleans, Massachusetts, where the system underwent extended stress testing over several months to evaluate autonomous operation, solar-powered endurance, environmental sensing, and remote communication performance.
Later deployments expanded to Pleasant Bay, Massachusetts, in partnership with Pleasant Bay Community Boating, where PEARL operated as an autonomous smart buoy collecting atmospheric and ocean environmental data in near real time.
More recent deployments have also supported autonomous maneuvering, AUV docking demonstrations, coastal monitoring research, and thermal digital twin validation studies.
These field deployments continue to support the broader MIT vision of extending autonomous underwater vehicle range and enabling persistent low-cost ocean monitoring through renewable energy and satellite-connected surface platforms.