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Compact, lightweight Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) with robust navigation and range for riverine reconnaissance
Navy SBIR 2010.2 - Topic N102-182 ONR - Mrs. Tracy Frost - [email protected] Opens: May 19, 2010 - Closes: June 23, 2010 N102-182 TITLE: Compact, lightweight Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) with robust navigation and range for riverine reconnaissance TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Ground/Sea Vehicles, Sensors, Battlespace ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Oceanographer of the Navy, PMS-NSW or PMS-403; Organic Mine Countermeasures Rationale: Naval Special Warfare presently uses the SAHRV AUV for a variety of survey missions. Their utilities are however substantially limited in the riverine environments. Persistent directional currents in rivers severely limit useful reconnaissance range of the SAHRV AUVs. Their dependence on GPS limits their navigation and mapping capabilities in riverine areas with heavy overhanging vegetations and canopies. Their size and weight also makes it difficulty for deployment from small riverine surface crafts. A smaller, light weight vehicle capable of traversing against river currents may be more useful for a variety of missions, including riverine ones, and consideration of commercially available AUVs developed with private investment is warranted. Advantages would include ease of operations from small surface crafts, expansion of mission areas including far upstream of rivers and heavily vegetated areas. Industry support for overlapping requirements and introduction of vendor-independent software through non-proprietary APIs provide these benefits. OBJECTIVE: Design and develop compact, lightweight AUV capable of riverine bathymetric SLAM and current surveys along river stream while navigating under vegetation canopy causing intermittent GPS and RF availability. The AUV shall be capable of transiting against river currents, which may be highly variable, for an extended period of time. Notional requirements are: weight less than 10 lbs and near neutrally buoyant; range greater than 30 miles upstream from a launching point; navigation and mapping error sufficiently low to ensure safe high-speed transit of follow-on surface craft. DESCRIPTION: Forces operating in shallow riverine environment require knowledge of river bathymetry and currents for safe and rapid transit. In many riverine environments of interest, overhead access to the waterway is partially or completely occluded by foliage, and such traditional airborne reconnaissance assets as manned aerial platforms, unmanned air systems (UASs), or satellites are unable to provide suitable route planning information including bathymetry to support riverine missions. For such environments, there is a need for AUVs that are capable of navigating with limited GPS, and capable of swimming against river currents for an extended range. There are a number of AUVs deployed operationally for various MCM missions; however, all rely on GPS availability to navigate. Furthermore, no available small AUVs are capable of operating against river currents for an extended period. To be deployable by operating forces using small riverine surface craft, the vehicle has to be compact and light weight. Innovation is required to achieve the necessary navigation accuracies and environmental mapping capabilities, including SLAM and control algorithms, hull form design, efficient use of propulsion and new power source, among others. Concepts and capabilities are solicited that provide a compact, light-weight AUV capable of providing maps of bathymetry and surface current far upstream from the launch point. PHASE I: Bathymetric SLAM, navigation, propulsion, control, and hull-form design, associated concepts and algorithms, and an integrated system design should be proposed to achieve the objective requirements. Component level and system level modeling and analyses are to be conducted to justify the proposed design. The design analyses should focus on feasibility of new proposed concepts of component/software integration for higher overall system performance. PHASE II: A prototype will be produced and fully demonstrated in Phase II. Test and analysis will document AUV performance with respect to the stated objectives as well as performance limitations in laboratory and operationally realistic environments. PHASE III: Proposer will develop an acquisition-ready AUV system description that meets well defined navigation and safe operation guidelines. Full manufacturing documentation will allow rapid production to occur with the vendor team. PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: Commercial production and distribution of man-portable AUVs parallels Navy interests. Primary applications in the near-term will address environmental baselining, monitoring, and change detection seasonally and in response to incremental or episodic events. Communities, ports, and resource management entities are likely the first customers, and their requirements for navigation accuracy, safe operation, and economical updates will be similar to the Navy requirements. REFERENCES: 2) Autonomous Vehicles in Support of Naval Operations: Naval Studies Board, National Academies Press, 2005: (http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11379) KEYWORDS: UUV; navigation; man-portable; unmanned undersea vehicle; bathymetry; SLAM
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