AUVAC

Deep-Sea Explorers Angle to Solve Mystery of Missing Malaysian Airliner

August 1, 2014 via – Wall Street Jornal

Now, two months after pausing its search, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau is ready to reboot the massive probe. It is poised to select among bids from the world’s most-advanced deepwater specialists, including offshore oil-and-gas companies, maritime research institutions and treasure hunters eager to use their technologies and experience to solve the Flight 370 riddle—and potentially raise their own profiles in the process.

The ATSB is expected to choose one or more of the bidders over the next several weeks before relaunching the search with $56 million in funding in late August. Those costs will be split, in amounts still to be determined, between the Australian and Malaysian governments.

The good news is that the world’s deep-sea recovery industry is now more sophisticated than ever, thanks to offshore research by oil-and-gas firms that have gone progressively deeper, as well as militaries and insurance firms. Technologies developed to hunt for everything from the Titanic to lost parts of the Space Shuttle Challenger have
further expanded frontiers, allowing investigators to work as deep as about 3.7 miles, or slightly more
than the deepest-known area of the Flight 370 search zone.

All About Batteries

December 4, 2013 via – EE Times

There are lots of factors to consider when choosing the battery technology for a particular application. In addition to relative size, weight, and cost (from cheap to expensive to “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it”), the main considerations and factors I plan on covering in this series are as follows:

Environment (operating and storage): Temperature, air pressure, altitude, mechanical strain, vibration, mounting position, radiation hardening, corrosive attack, packaging/shape, storage or shelf life, disposal, waste products produced and outgassing, consumables required, safety, and materials/RoHS

Application: Types (including primary, secondary, and smart), technology, chemistries, efficiency and loss, charge/discharge cycle count and rates, depth of discharge, service life, memory effect, charging techniques, capacitor/battery hybrid, use cases, capacity, density (energy and weight), protection circuitry, measuring and gas gauge, quality, reliability, and recharge and run times

DARPA BAA 13-39 (Hydra)

August 22, 2013 via – DARPA

The Hydra program will develop and demonstrate an unmanned undersea system, providing a novel delivery mechanism for insertion of unmanned air and underwater vehicles into operational environments. Situated underwater, Hydra will use modular payloads within a standardized enclosure to enable scalable, cost-effective deployment of rapid response assets and will integrate existing and emerging technologies in new ways to create an alternate means of delivering a variety of payloads close to the point of use. The Hydra program seeks to develop
and demonstrate initial examples of air and undersea payloads while leaving open the potential for accommodating additional payloads in the future.

The rising number of ungoverned states, piracy, and proliferation of sophisticated defenses severely stretches current resources and impacts the nation’s ability to conduct special operations and contingency missions. The Hydra program represents a cost effective way to add undersea capacity that can be tailored to support each mission. Hydra’s communications suite could allow synergistic function with manned platforms, thus increasing their effectiveness, or
could allow remote control from over-the-horizon. Technologies are intended to be adaptable to multiple delivery options, including airborne, surface, and subsurface. The Hydra program will enable other new capabilities not currently performed from undersea.

Integrated Synoptic Surveys Using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle and Manned Boats

May 14, 2013 via – US Geological Survey

Traditional surface-water surveys are being combined with autonomous technology to produce integrated surveys of bathymetry, water quality, and velocity in inland lakes and reservoirs. This new technology provides valuable, high-resolution, integrated data that allow a systems-based approach to understanding common environmental problems. This fact sheet presents several example applications of integrated surveys within inland lakes and coastal Lake Michigan and Lake Erie.

Autonomy Research Pilot Initiative (ARPI)

November 30, 2012 via – US Department of Defense

The Autonomy Research Pilot Initiative (ARPI) seeks to promote the development of innovative, cross-cutting science and technology for autonomous systems able to meet future DOD system and mission requirements. The focus is on those projects with the potential to radically advance capabilities 5, 10 or more years in the future in important warfare areas. Envisioned technology will allow military systems to complete complex military missions in dynamic environments with the right balance of warfighter involvement. The ARPI is a pilot test of an OSD-sponsored
innovation program, directed by ASD (R&E), and executed by the Services, with support from the DOD Priority Steering Council (PSC) for Autonomy.

Plotting a Better Path

July 3, 2012 via – VaCAS

What is the easiest way to determine what is on the ocean floor? How quickly can robot explorers tell the difference between a sand ripple, hidden treasure, or even a possible danger? ECE associate professor Dan Stilwell’s team in the Autonomous Systems and Controls Laboratory (ASCL) is developing answers to these questions.

With a new three-year grant fromthe Office of Naval Research, they are working on the algorithms to deploy autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and sensing technology in the most efficient manner. “If we have assets that can characterize the environment, how would we deploy those assets?” Stilwell asks.

Mapping everything, he says, takes a long time and uses more power and resources than necessary, so his team wishes to efficiently search for underwater objects with a given probability that every object of interest has been identified.

Magnetic anomaly mapping using an underwater glider equipped with a Mag648 low power fluxgate sensor

May 25, 2012 via – Bartington Instruments

This case study examines how a low power, low noise Bartington Instruments Mag648MXL magnetic field sensor may be installed on an underwater glider for the purpose of magnetic anomaly measurements.

Magnetic anomalies are defined as the deviation of the magnetic field from the Earth reference field at that location. These measurements can be visualised in a similar way to the topographic map of a terrain. Magnetic anomaly maps may be used to assist the navigation of unmanned vehicles during periods when the sea is frozen, extending their available usage time beyond the summer months.

TRITON — Multisensory Based Underwater Intervention through Cooperative Marine Robots

March 1, 2012 via – University of the Balearic Islands, Systems, Robotics and Vision Group

The TRITON research project pursues the use of autonomous vehicles in the accomplishment of complex underwater intervention tasks. The project will emphasize the operation of multiple vehicles (an AUV and an I-AUV) cooperating in a coordinate manner during the execution of a mission, as well as in increasing the dexterity of a robotic arm (currently under development in the context of the RAUVI project), that will be installed in the I-AUV.

National project, 2012–2014, in progress

Global Objectives

The TRITON project proposes two scenarios as a proof of concept to demonstrate the developed capabilities: (1) the search and recovery of an object of interest (e.g. a black box) and (2) the intervention of an underwater panel in a permanent observatory.

The first mission scenario will be divided in several sub-tasks. First, the mission will begin with the deployment of the AUV and the intervention I-AUV, which should then adopt and maintain a safe formation that enables acoustic communication and absolute positioning of both vehicles. Then, a sonar survey will be carried out by the AUV to detect the signal emitted by a pinger in the black box. The detection of such signal will be followed by a second survey, whose objective is to create a photomosaic of the area, making possible to visually identify the object. Finally, the AUV will be sent back to perform the intervention task to recover the object.

The second mission scenario will also begin with the deployment and formation of both marine robots in order to establish communications and absolute positioning. Then, the AUV will use acoustics to interrogate a transponder mounted in the observatory with the objective to guide the vehicle transit to the panel. When visual contact with the objective is established, the AUV will approach the panel using visual servoing. The final part of the docking operation will involve a mechanism to rigidly attach the vehicle to the panel. After this, the manipulation will take place. Two demonstrative applications are foreseen: Opening/closing a valve, and connecting/disconnecting a cable.

MBARI Researchers Announce Expedition in Gulf of California

February 6, 2012 via – MBARI

Following up on tantalizing discoveries made during a 2003 trip to the gulf, MBARI researchers will be returning to the little-explored region in February 2012 for a three-month expedition. Web visitors can read the scientists’ daily research updates and follow their progress on the expedition homepage.

Serving as a “scout” for the Western Flyer is a second MBARI research vessel, the Zephyr. For this expedition, Zephyr will carry an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that uses sound to create detailed maps of the seafloor. These maps will help the ROV pilots find their way around the ocean bottom and will give scientists some ideas of particularly interesting places to investigate.

Mission
During spring 2012, MBARI researchers are making a long-awaited return to the Gulf of California, the 1,130-kilometer-long (700-mile-long) finger of water that separates the peninsula of Baja California from mainland Mexico. The expedition, which runs from February 4 to May 10, will build on many of the exciting discoveries made during MBARI’s first trip to the gulf in 2003.

The Gulf of California holds special scientific appeal because of its nutrient-rich surface waters filled with life, its extensive layer of oxygen-poor water, and the many hydrothermal vents, undersea volcanoes, and zig-zag faults that have shaped its seafloor. In addition to studying these diverse physical environments and the fascinating creatures that inhabit them, MBARI’s scientists hope to compare life in the gulf to life in the extensively studied ecosystems of Monterey Bay. In particular, the warm, low-oxygen waters of the gulf may offer a window into the future of Monterey Bay under some climate change scenarios.

Research Plans
Like a scientific relay, this 12-week expedition is divided into several legs, each led by a different scientist with a different research focus. Some scientists are measuring ocean currents, while others are studying the diverse animals that swim and drift in the gulf’s clear water. Still others are investigating the chemistry of the seawater and the active geologic features on the gulf’s seafloor.

In early February, two of MBARI’s research vessels, the R/V Western Flyer and the R/V Zephyr, depart for the gulf. Scientists on the Western Flyer will begin conducting research during their trip south. The Zephyr will travel ahead of the Western Flyer, carrying an autonomous underwater vehicle to map the seafloor of the gulf. Scientists aboard the Western Flyer will use the resulting maps to plan deep-sea dives using the remotely operated vehicle Doc Ricketts. MBARI’s robotic vehicles offer unique access to the deep regions of the gulf, many of which are unexplored.

Throughout the expedition, scientists will post daily cruise logs, sharing their observations and discoveries with the public. Follow the links at the right to read their descriptions of research and life aboard ship. Web visitors can also learn about the individual researchers, their equipment, and the scientific goals for each leg of this historic cruise.

Development of positive electrode materials for low-cost and high-performance lithium-ion secondary batteries

January 13, 2012 via – Physorg.com

Mitsuharu Tabuchi (Senior Researcher), Ionics Research Group, the Research Institute for Ubiquitous Energy Devices (Director: Tetsuhiko Kobayashi) of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST; President: Tamotsu Nomakuchi), has developed two types of new oxide material (namely, Li1+x(Fe0.3Mn0.7)1-xO2 and Li1+x(Fe0.3Mn0.5Ti0.2)1-xO2) for the positive electrode of lithium-ion secondary batteries in collaboration with Junji Akimoto (Leader), Crystal and Materials Processes Group, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Institute (Director: Nobumitsu Murayama) of AIST and Junichi Imaizumi (Manager), Technology Development Team 5, Technology Development Department of Tanaka Chemical Corporation (Tanaka Chemical; President: Tamotsu Tanaka). Approximately 30 % of the total amount of transition metals in these newly developed oxide materials is made up of iron, which is a low-cost and resource-wise abundant metal.