SBIR-STTR Award

Gateway buoys are used to provide communications telemetry between remotely deployed undersea assets and surface or shore base command centers. These buoys are capable of transmitting information via acoustic modems, Iridium and Freewave RF. Previous versions of these buoys required battery power and needed to be moored. Operational effectiveness was limited. This proposal builds upon gateway buoy designs already completed for SPAWAR addressing the need for improvements. Dubbed "Gatekeepers," these buoys will address the requirements not found in today's designs including: an improved hydrodynamic shape to reduce power consumption for station-keeping and thereby extending useful life; alternative energy sources including solar, fuel cells and kinetic; propulsion-equipped to maintain station without mooring lines; improved overall design elements such as extended mission duration, obstacle avoidance, the addition of ACOMMs and a transducer winch system. FSI is proposing in Phase I to conduct a series of engineering investigations into the trade-offs of design to determine an optimal Gatekeeper system. FSI will build upon knowledge from its previous moored gateway buoys as well as its revolutionary Solar AUV. The Option to Phase I will deliver a completed design as well as estimated production costs for Phases II & III

Gateway buoys are used to provide communications telemetry between remotely deployed undersea assets such as submarines and AUV’s and surface or share based command centers. These buoys are capable of transmitting information via acoustic modems, Iridium and Freewave RF. Previous versions of these buoys required battery power and needed to be moored. Operational effectiveness was limited. In our Phase I SBIR, FSI investigated solutions for extending the service life and negating the need for the buoy to be moored. Specifically, we investigated optimal shapes, a variety of alternative energy sources including solar, kinetic and fuel cell, propulsion methods, transducer winching, and overall power/performance tradeoffs. FSI now proposes to incorporate the engineering improvements discovered into a working prototype. Throughout Phase I, the requirements of constant data connection, maximum life expectancy, and optimal buoy design for locomotion and scalability for eventual alternative deployment scenarios were taken into account. FSI now proposes to develop these technologies into an innovative long-endurance, energy-harvesting, station-keeping (and mobile) platform. Specifically, we will produce a working prototype with alternate energy sources targeting a 4 month deployment time period on an un-tethered platform

Keywords:
BUOY, ACOUSTIC, TELEMETRY, COMMUNICATIONS, SONAR, SATELLITE, AUTONOMOUS, NAVIGATION