AUVAC

UUVs rise to the surface

Unmanned underwater vehicles are becoming feasible for a wide variety of applications, from autonomous ship hull inspection to oil and gas exploration, while military leaders are developing UUVs for long-endurance underwater intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.

Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) in the past have been niche machines used for research and specific pre-programmed tasks. The difficulties of building and operating these submersibles made them less useful than their airborne and land-bound kin. With technology constantly moving forward, however, UUVs are expanding into the mainstream with the ability to complete a wider variety of missions than their research-specific predecessors.

UUVs face a unique challenge that other unmanned vehicles do not: the ocean. This is a corrosive environment in which high pressure often can be present. Marine animals as small as microorganisms and as large as whales can interfere with operation. In the ocean, communications are virtually non-existent, and ruggedizing these underwater craft, without exception, means they must be either waterproof, airtight, or both. As a result, UUVs need to be largely autonomous, able to withstand the rigors of the marine environment, and be among the most power-efficient vehicles designed.

Run Silent, Run Deep, Run Solo

Autonomous underwater vehicles can go where humans fear to dive, but communications remains a challenge.

High-flying drones, such as General Atomic’s Predator, create headlines in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. But cruising stealthily beneath the waves is an equally impressive fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). These vessels are helping organizations, including the U.S. Navy, major oil companies, and various scientific research bodies retrieve vital information, deactivate mines, support repair and maintenance operations, and handle an array of other vital tasks more efficiently, and in many instances more safely, than would be possible if manned vessels or divers were used.

“Any unmanned application has tremendous benefits,” says Dr. Rand LeBouvier, a retired Navy captain who now works in the government military sector at Bluefin Robotics Corp., an AUV manufacturer located in Quincy, Mass. “In addition to the traditional dull, dirty, [and] dangerous applications, as well as saving manpower, money, and time, unmanned underwater systems give you access to places you would never be able to go with a manned system.” LeBouvier also notes that sensor-loaded AUVs are bringing to fruition a centuries-old dream of generations of sailors and marine researchers: “a transparent ocean.”

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Edited by: Nuno A. Cruz

ISBN 978-953-307-432-0, Hard cover, 258 pages
Publisher: InTech
Publication date: October 2011
Subject: Ocean Engineering

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are remarkable machines that revolutionized the process of gathering ocean data. Their major breakthroughs resulted from successful developments of complementary technologies to overcome the challenges associated with autonomous operation in harsh environments. Most of these advances aimed at reaching new application scenarios and decreasing the cost of ocean data collection, by reducing ship time and automating the process of data gathering with accurate geo location. With the present capabilities, some novel paradigms are already being employed to further exploit the on board intelligence, by making decisions on line based on real time interpretation of sensor data. This book collects a set of self contained chapters covering different aspects of AUV technology and applications in more detail than is commonly found in journal and conference papers. They are divided into three main sections, addressing innovative vehicle design, navigation and control techniques, and mission preparation and analysis. The progress conveyed in these chapters is inspiring, providing glimpses into what might be the future for vehicle technology and applications.

Table of Contents

Development of a Vectored Water-Jet-Based Spherical Underwater Vehicle
Shuxiang Guo and Xichuan Lin

Development of a Hovering-Type Intelligent Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, P-SURO
Ji-Hong Li, Sung-Kook Park, Seung-Sub Oh, Jin-Ho Suh, Gyeong-Hwan Yoon and Myeong-Sook Baek

Hydrodynamic Characteristics of the Main Parts of a Hybrid-Driven Underwater Glider PETREL
Wu Jianguo, Zhang Minge and Sun Xiujun

Real-Time Optimal Guidance and Obstacle Avoidance for UMVs
Oleg A. Yakimenko and Sean P. Kragelund

Formation Guidance of AUVs Using Decentralized Control Functions
Matko Barisic, Zoran Vukic and Nikola Miskovic

Modeling and Motion Control Strategy for AUV
Lei Wan and Fang Wang

Fully Coupled 6 Degree-of-Freedom Control of an Over-Actuated Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
Matthew Kokegei, Fangpo He and Karl Sammut

Short-Range Underwater Acoustic Communication Networks
Gunilla Burrowes and Jamil Y. Khan

Embedded Knowledge and Autonomous Planning: The Path Towards Permanent Presence of Underwater Networks
Pedro Patrón, Emilio Miguelañez and Yvan R. Petillot

Deep-Sea Fish Behavioral Responses to Underwater Vehicles: Differences Among Vehicles, Habitats and Species
Franz Uiblein

Mapping and Dilution Estimation of Wastewater Discharges Based on Geostatistics Using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
Patrícia Ramos and Nuno Abreu

Naval Oceanography in Mine Warfare

Commander Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command presentation at the May 2011 Mine Warfare Association (MINWARA) conference

Overview

• Naval Oceanography plays a critical role in Mine Warfare
• Our support has evolved far beyond our legacy roles. Naval Oceanography is beginning to play a major role in mine hunting and contact management.
• Our capabilities are in great demand for both Maritime Homeland Defense (MHD) and overseas contingencies
• Naval Oceanography gives the Navy Mine Warfare home field advantage everywhere

Dummy’s Guide to Marine Technology

Glossary of Marine Technology Terms

This glossary was originally developed by MTS member Brock Rosenthal as the “Dummy’s Guide to Marine Technology.” We will continue to build on Brock’s work by adding terms when appropriate.

Open Architecture, Dual Commercial/Military Use of Large Displacement Unmanned Undersea Vehicles

Executive Summary
The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Program Manager for Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (UUVs) (PMS 403) requested the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Undersea Warfare Division conduct a study on the potential for a large displacement UUV to be commercially designed for dual use such that it had commercial enterprise viability and also be a platform to test military payloads during periodic fleet battle experiments.

Major issues.

(1) The UUV is an important and versatile transformational element that can bring unique capabilities to the Navy of the future, particularly in pre-emptive and first response. It has the potential to become an essential part in the Navy’s FORCEnet concept in providing real-time information to gain an asymmetric advantage.

(2) Realization of the full potential of the UUV as a truly Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (AUV) in warfare will begin with a transition to a large displacement vehicle. The capability of small displacement UUVs will greatly limit what UUVs can provide as multi-mission assets and limit their true autonomy. Larger displacement UUVs must be integrated into new platform designs such that they can be viable organic assets. Utility as a force multiplier must be evident or the large footprint of a large displacement UUV and its support equipment will not be allocated space in future warship designs.

(3) The expanding commercial market must be leveraged to ensure that new systems can be developed in an affordable manner, using commercial standards. An expanding commercial market enables companies to provide systems that have military application while at the same time being commercially marketable.

Technical market research on a number of existing UUV programs provided information to assess our business cases from a broad range of designers, manufacturers, missions and users. They ranged from large Defense suppliers to small research companies, Navy and academic research laboratories. The researched historical programs revealed, many successes and failures, albeit with limited operational missions and customers. These programs provided
insight into the development and analysis of business cases.

Critical success factors and barriers. We found that the commercial market for AUVs would probably be increasing in robustness in the next five to ten years; however, competition, particularly foreign, would be keen with more commercial firms entering the marketplace.

Potential UUV Business Cases. The team postulated and analyzed a family of cases. These included:

(1) Traditional Government Procurement,

(2) Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) Vehicle with a Short Term Government Lease,

(3) A COTS Vehicle Modified for Navy Use with a Long-Term Lease, and,

(4) Commercial-Navy Enterprise Partnership. The analysis of these cases included Cost, Technical, Schedule, and Programmatic factors. These were further broken down into sub-factors. Costs included development, construction
supportability, operation, damage//loss, indemnification and cost risk.

Technical factors included Common standards for payload flexibility, vehicle standards, operational requirements, operational security, and technical risk. Schedule factors included time to field the system, operational schedule and vehicle availability, and schedule risk.

AUV’S – The Maturity of the Technology

The development of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and their introduction into the military and offshore markets, has been a slow and costly process. This paper will provide an overview of those using and developing AUVs, discuss the state-of-the-art, and provide a projection on where the technology is heading and the hurdles it must overcome to reach maturity.