The current proposal addresses the design and fabrication of a rapidly deployable, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) suitable for operation within littorals and riverine environments. The proposed platform brings together current state of the art technologies in the areas of doppler sonar, power generation, on-board navigation and system optimization. These technologies will be evaluated, collectively modeled and optimized in the Phase I effort to establish a comprehensive prototype design. The overall objectives for the design will be based on Navy requirements and the specific mission and power draw projected for on-board systems over the proposed mission duration. Initial assessment of the requirements indicate that in order to achieve the duration and projected power draw to achieve a robust navigation solution within the GPS denied environment, an additional power generation solution must be employed. The proposed platform incorporates a hydrokinematic power generation technique to periodically recharge the power supply. Power management and navigation will be managed through an intelligent on-board processor that will be used to optimize the various system parameters to achieve the desired mission objectives.
Benefit: The successful outcome of the proposed work will establish a small readily deployable UUV platform capable of self navigation in littoral and riverine environments. It is expected that through a series of periodic power generation steps, this platform would be capable of existing, unattended, for long periods of time (possibly months) in the proposed environment. Depending upon the specific payload, this platform would find additional use for DoD as a sleeping sensor platform that when desired could be used to track and monitor events in the region of interest. The platform will find additional applications in the scientific community evaluating a range of water-air-land interfaces such as glacial tongues, and icebergs, supra-glacial and moraine lakes and a range of coastal environments supporting NOAA, NASA and the coast guard. The platform will also be used monitoring and generating data on remote shallow locations such as large rivers and coastal deltas, to track marine mammals, survey plant life and in support of counter-narcotic activities.
Keywords: denied GPA navigation, denied GPA navigation, Hydro-kinematic, SCANNING SONAR, AUV, SLAM, autonomous UUV, bathymetry, doppler sonar
