The proposed Autonmous Reactive Ferrrying Drifter (ARF-D) provides wide measured swath, autonomously maintains a buffer distance from close-shore snags, and by utilizing river flow provides a very low power approach to obtaining cross-river surveying, providing greater coverage with minimal power penalty. By randomizing the cross-river transit paths multiple ARF-D units will naturally overcome the same-path focus of passive drifters gaining greater coverage without the need for sophisticated and power intensive intra-drifter communication or formation keeping.
Keywords: Drifter, Drifter, Riverine, Reactive Ferrying, Bathymetry, Autonomous
