# Future Tasks

The development of this platform is an ongoing effort at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. The sensor selection, however, has nearly reached its maturity. The current configuration’s coverage rates are limited by the small swath of the available lidar. Better integration of the system components is still in progress, most notably extending 1PPS time discipline to all systems. There are two major directions that future developments are intended to take. 

Currently in development is a modified ROV tool-sled that will mount all active sensor components on an articulating frame. This effort will gather more detailed data in high-relief environments. For example, our surveys at Sur Ridge to date have focused on horizontally level sectors of this feature. By tilting the sensor array, we will be able to collect data from the vertical walls of the ridge, where many animals of interest to our biologists inhabit. Repeat surveys of Monterey Canyon walls will allow us to study the slope failures that lead to some of the results shown in Section \ref{repeat-mapping}. This task involves some challenging efforts in navigation and mission planning to maintain the array as normal to the target plane as possible.

The second effort is to continue to develop software and control algorithms that can allow this package to eventually be adapted to an autonomous platform. This involves software efforts to add autonomy to all aspects of the system, as well as implementing subsea data storage. Major challenges include quality control on  the stereo vision system, adaptive range control on both the lidar and sonar, and creating real-time available data from survey systems for use in navigation solutions.