SBIR-STTR Award

White River Technologies proposes this effort involving non-acoustic sensing methods and sensor fusion technologies to detect and characterize man-made objects of interest in littoral environments relevant to expeditionary mine warfare and unexploded ordnance remediation. Current and evolving threats to maritime dominance require the Navy to adapt to potential hazards from a variety of sources, which could include terrorism, and to operate in increasingly difficult environments. Objects of interest may be hidden or obscured by seabed features such as vegetation, corals, rocks, biologics, man-made debris, and scouring/burial. Our concept will provide an improved capability to localize and classify objects of interest in complex seabed conditions that currently pose a challenge to successful identification of objects using solely acoustic or optical methods. Our concept is based on multi-axis/multi-sensor methods deployed from unmanned systems such as small inspection-class remotely or autonomously operated vehicles to provide the advanced classification and target identification capability to fill these gaps. Our multi-sensor approach will significantly improve target classification, identification and localization, and provide effective clutter rejection capability. Project tasks include assessment of multi-axis transmitter and receiver configurations, modification of existing characterization algorithms, and sensing system integration with an inspection-class ROV.

Benefit:
Anticipated benefits of the proposed technology are significant for ONR, NAVSEA, and other Naval and DOD System Commands. Benefits include: 1) improved characterization of surface and subsurface targets using advanced EM sensors that produce discriminating polarizability features intrinsic to the target; 2) improved detection range of targets compared to existing acoustic and optical solutions; and 3) increased value and functionality of current DOD ROVs through the use of EM and magnetometer sensing technologies orthogonal to existing optical and sonar sensing systems.

Keywords:
ROV sensing, ROV sensing, Magnetometers, Electromagnetics, subsea characterization, MCM

White River Technologies, Inc. proposes this effort involving non-acoustic sensing methods and sensor fusion technologies to detect and characterize seabed objects of interest in littoral environments relevant to US Naval activities. Current and evolving threats to maritime dominance require the Navy to adapt to potential hazards from a variety of sources, which could include terrorism, and to operate in increasingly difficult environments. Objects of interest may be hidden or obscured by seabed features such as vegetation, corals, rocks, biologics, man-made debris, and scouring/burial. Our concept will provide an improved capability to localize and classify objects of interest in complex seabed conditions that currently pose a challenge to successful identification of objects using traditional methods. Our concept is based on multi-axis/multi-sensor methods deployed from unmanned systems such as small inspection-class remotely or autonomously operated vehicles to provide advanced classification and target identification capabilities that fill these gaps. Our multi-sensor approach will significantly improve target classification, identification and localization, and provide effective clutter rejection capability. The projected capability is focused on near-term (1-2 years) demonstrations of a TRL-6 system tightly integrated with Naval unmanned assets.

Benefit:
Anticipated benefits of the proposed technology are significant for Naval undersea warfare and assured dominance. Benefits include: 1) improved characterization of surface and subsurface targets using advanced EM sensors that produce discriminating polarizability features intrinsic to the target; 2) improved detection range of targets compared to existing acoustic and optical solutions; and 3) increased value and functionality of current DOD ROVs through the use of EM and magnetometer sensing technologies orthogonal to existing optical and sonar sensing systems. The system design emphasizes plug-and-ply/bolt-on modularization and ease of use with existing and emerging US Navy unmanned system assets.

Keywords:
unexploded ordnance, Littoral Combat, Unmanned Systems, Undersea Warfare, Electromagnetic sensing, Mine-countermeasures