Community News for July, 2009

Underwater glider recovery

July 31, 2009 — via National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

On Monday 20 July 2009, an underwater 'glider' used by scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) to help understand the interaction between oceans and climate was successfully recovered by Spanish Search and Rescue off the Canaries after developing technical problems.

AUVSI and ONR's 12th International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition

July 30, 2009 — via AUVSI

Watch the World’s Top Student Built Robotic Subs Online This Week

Commando Subs Sending Drones, Robo-Torpedos into Combat

July 28, 2009 — via Wired

The U.S. Navy’s four Special Forces-optimized submarines are using a wide range of robots in combat in coastal areas, the Navy’s top officer for irregular warfare said in a surprisingly candid interview. The Ohio-class guided-missile subs, modified from surplus ballistic-missile boats, have been outfitted with robotic mini-subs and at least two types of unmanned aerial vehicle, according to Rear Adm. Mark W. Kenny. It seems Kenny’s comments, to Special Operations Technology reporter Scott Gourley, just barely slipped under a descending veil of secrecy. “These get classified real fast because we’re using these vehicles in operations,” Kenny admitted.

Senators announce second year of Great Lakes Observing System

July 28, 2009 — via The Times Herald

Senators Levin and Stabenow, both D-Mich., announced today $258,607 in federal funding for the second year of implementation of the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS). The system is designed to address climate change impacts, ecosystem and food web dynamics, protection of public health and navigation safety and efficiency for the Great Lakes. It also monitors water flow in the St. Clair River.

French DGA Awards DCNS, Thales and ECA Contract to Study Drones for Mine Countermeasures

July 28, 2009 — via Defence Professionals

The French defence procurement agency (DGA) has awarded DCNS, Thales and ECA a major study contract that is expected to lead, around 2011, to a demonstrator of a new mine countermeasures solution dubbed Espadon*.

The Espadon solution comprises a minehunter, two USVs and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). While remaining at all times at a safe distance from the mine field, the minehunter or similar dedicated vessel will deploy and control the USVs, each programmed specifically to operate in mine fields. The USVs, in turn, will deploy AUVs, a smaller and completely autonomous type of subsea naval drone carrying sensors and robotic devices to detect and neutralise naval mines. On completing their mission, the AUVs return to the USVs and the USVs to the mother vessel.

A Survey of Missions for Unmanned Undersea Vehicles

July 27, 2009 — via Rand Corporation

Which military missions for unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) appear most promising to pursue in terms of military need, operational and technical risks, alternatives, and cost? To answer this question, the authors assess risks associated with using UUVs for advocated missions, identify non-UUV alternatives that may be more appropriate for such missions, and analyze potential costs associated with UUV development and use. They conclude that seven missions — mine countermeasures, deployment of leave-behind surveillance sensors or sensor arrays, near-land and harbor monitoring, oceanography, monitoring undersea infrastructure, anti-submarine warfare tracking, and inspection/identification — appear most promising.

Exposing the belly of the bay

July 24, 2009 — via WHYY

University of Delaware scientists mapping Delaware Bay with a Gavia AUV. Each year thousands of massive ships pass over the murky bottom of the Delaware Bay, where the Delaware River meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Despite the traffic, little is known about what lies at the depths of this well-worn waterway.

Health and science reporter Kerry Grens joined some scientists on a mapping expedition, and filed this report.

Researchers drop 'drifters' into Prince William Sound

July 23, 2009 — via Alaska Journal of Commerce

Fishermen beware: Two strange-looking fish are swimming around in parts of Prince William Sound. They are man-made fish, actually. Scientists with the Cordova-based Prince William Sound Science Center, along with researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and California Polytechnic State University are working with two controlled underwater vehicles as part of a two-week project to gather field data on conditions in the Sound.
The research group will use other instruments too, including "drifters," or devices that float with currents and are retrieved latter.

Littoral Battlespace Sensing (LBS) Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (AUV)

July 22, 2009 — via Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command

The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) in support of PMW120 intends to issue Request for Proposal, N00039-09-R-0030, to design, engineer, build, test, and deliver ocean Littoral Battlespace Sensing-Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles (LBS-AUV) as well as associated support equipment as part of the Littoral Battlespace Sensing, Fusion, and Integration(LBSF&I) program. The LBS-AUVs are large, short endurance, conventionally powered vehicles that will significantly increase the bathymetric and acoustic imagery collection capability of T-AGS 60 class ships. The Government contemplates single award of a hybrid contract that includes Cost Plus Incentive Fee, Firm Fixed Price, and Cost Plus Fixed Fee contract line items resulting from this solicitation.

Watch AUVSI and ONR's 12th International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition

July 22, 2009 — via AUVSI

AUVSI will be webcasting its International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition online. Visit www.auvsi.org/competitions/water.cfm on Friday, 31 July and Saturday, 1 August to watch nightly recaps or tune in on Sunday, 2 August to watch the finals LIVE from San Diego, CA, USA. Visit the website for more information ont the time for the Finals.

Bluefin-12 AUV chosen to facilitate UVic’s Ocean Technology Test Bed

July 20, 2009 — via Bluefin Robotics

Bluefin Robotics Corporation, a world leader in the design and manufacture of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), has been contracted to provide a Bluefin-12 AUV to the University of Victoria’s Ocean Technology Lab (OTL). The vehicle will be integrated into the Ocean Technology Test Bed (OTTB) being constructed in Saanich Inlet near Vancouver Island, Canada. The OTTB will be a facet of the VENUS cabled ocean observatory already implemented in the same location which provides real-time ocean data to scientists and students. Because the Bluefin-12 AUV is a highly flexible platform capable of being fitted with a variety of commercial and prototype payloads, it will be a key instrument in facilitating research and development for the University and the oceanographic community.

Sensor upgrades for deepwater survey AUVs

July 20, 2009 — via Engineer Live

Tony George presents a comparison of data collected with the first and second generation autonomous underwater vehicles
Commercial, deepwater survey AUVs used primarily in the oil and gas industry are approaching nearly a decade of use. The speed and efficiency at which these systems operate in deepwater have saved exploration and production companies millions of dollars in development survey costs when compared to conventional survey techniques. Project timelines from the discovery well to first oil production have decreased significantly due to AUV technology. Larger AUV platform designs allow space for more powerful sensors, longer life batteries and stronger electronic housings capable of withstanding increased water depth pressures. Sensor upgrades in the latest generation of AUVs have resulted in improved high-resolution geophysical data.

Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe (SAUC-E) 2009 Results

July 18, 2009 — via Defence Science and Technology Laboratory UK

Eight university teams from across Europe competed at the QinetiQ Ocean Basin Tank with vehicles they had designed and built themselves at the fourth annual SAUC-E competition, the third time it had been held in the UK.

Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University Remains Europe's underwater Robot Champions

July 17, 2009 — via Defence Science and Technology Laboratory UK

For the second year running, a Heriot-Watt University team has won the annual Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe (SAUC-E) – an underwater robot championship organised by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) – scooping a £3,000 prize from sponsors BAE Systems.
Heriot-Watt’s robot, ‘Nessie’, performed consistently throughout the two days of competition, scoring higher than the other seven competing teams. Along with the other robots, Nessie had to perform a series of underwater tasks autonomously including passing through several gates without touching the frames, parking inside a box and following a moving target. The tests all took place in Europe’s largest freshwater tank at QinetiQ’s Ocean Basin in Haslar, Gosport, which is normally used by the Ministry of Defence for ship and submarine trials

Royal Netherlands Navy increases REMUS AUV fleet

July 15, 2009 — via Kongsberg Maritime

Hydroid, Inc. has received a contract from the The Netherlands Ministry of Defence to acquire three additional REMUS 100 Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) for the Royal Netherlands Navy.

Artificial intelligence

July 14, 2009 — via The Engineer - UK

An EU grant worth E1.8m has been awarded to a consortium of five European research institutions to build a robot that will help researchers understand how fish can swim upstream.

The consortium, led by the Tallinn University of Technology, with partners Riga Technical University, the Italian Institute of Technology and the universities of Verona and Bath, will be using biology to inspire the design of a swimming robot that can react to changes in current or flow, such as a fish might encounter in a fast-flowing stream or near the seashore.

The robot could be used to film and study the diverse marine life near the seashore, where conventional propeller-driven submersible robots have difficulty manoeuvring due to the shallow water, kelp, and currents created by waves.

AUV supports environmental monitoring, wide area surveys

July 13, 2009 — via Engineer Live

Saab has been developing advanced autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and for more than 30 years. Development of underwater vehicles from Saab has been done in a modular and evolutionary way to create a flexible solution to fit different domains and customers. An important strategy for the development of these modular vehicles has been to minimise life cycle and ILS costs for the customer. And now the company has just launched a new generation of AUVs to the international oil and gas market the AUV62.

Applied Signal Technology, Inc. Performs Successful Pipeline Inspection Survey in the Gulf of Mexico

July 10, 2009 — via Applied Signal Technology

Applied Signal Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: APSG) (AST), a market leader in advanced underwater imaging systems as well as other intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance systems, today announced that it had recently assisted C & C Technologies, Inc., using its PROSAS™ Surveyor synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) system to survey the integrity of seven pipeline structures in the Gulf of Mexico for a major oil company. Specifically, AST was tasked to evaluate the critical positioning of mattresses that are used to protect exposed pipelines from marine traffic, tidal scour, and storm impact and to determine whether structural repairs were required. C & C Technologies, Inc. is a privately-owned international surveying and mapping company specializing in deepwater services.

Teams vie for underwater robot prize

July 10, 2009 — via BBC News, Gosport

At the edge of a vast indoor tank, a team of university students watches intensely as a robotic vehicle attempts to negotiate an underwater obstacle course.

The box-shaped robot, held in place within an outer frame, has been designed by a team from Heriot Watt University in Scotland.

It is designed to complete a series of challenging tasks: passing through a gate without touching any part of the structure, following a moving target, hovering over a stationary target and "parking" in a box.

But there is not a joystick in sight - this robot is designed to navigate the course independently of a human controller.

Heriot Watt's entry is one of eight autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) vying for top place in a competition called SAUC-E (Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge Europe).

The venue for this contest is the Ocean Basin in Gosport. This is Europe's largest freshwater tank, measuring 120m long, 60m wide and 5.5m deep.

Keeping watch on the planet from the bottom up

July 4, 2009 — via Globe and Mail

This summer, a pair of research vessels will seek out a slim cable buried two years ago on the seabed 300 kilometres off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Using methods developed 150 years ago for the first transatlantic telegraph cables, they'll snag the line and haul it up to the surface with a heavy hook.

But it's not spliced-together copper wire carrying Morse code at the revolutionary speed of two minutes per character.

Instead, this high-voltage, high-bandwidth line will plug in to a series of 13-tonne deep-sea observatories.

Once again, Canada is connecting to leading-edge communications technology.

“We are wiring the oceans,” says Chris Barnes, program director of NEPTUNE Canada. From probing the shifting Juan de Fuca Plate to exploring secret whale superhighways, researchers from 12 Canadian universities, led by the University of Victoria, will share the wealth of intelligence. “We're on the front end of a revolution.”

NEPTUNE, the North-East Pacific Time-Series Undersea Networked Experiments, will open a window on one of the most hostile research climates on Earth.

The backbone of the project is the 800-kilometre loop of undersea cable, carrying power and data for hundreds of unmanned subaquatic laboratories that carry equipment for listening, sampling and measuring what goes on in the deeps.

An Autonomous Robot For Underwater Intervention Tasks

July 2, 2009 — via Red Orbit

Nowadays many underwater intervention tasks are performed using tele-operated robots. However, developing an autonomous robot capable of carrying out these tasks is a challenge that the scientific community has still to overcome in the field of underwater robotics. The successful completion of such a project would allow the economic and human resources involved in this sort of intervention to be reduced, since there would no longer be any need for support boats, umbilical cables or the ROV pilots in charge of tele-operating the vehicle under undoubtedly exhausting conditions. This would make it possible to carry out operations which are not feasible with tele-operated systems and which require a permanent connection to a support boat through an umbilical cable.

RAUVI: Reconfigurable AUV for intervention is a national project led by Professor Pedro Sanz which currently has around 40 researchers from three Spanish universities, i.e. Universitat Jaume I, in Castelló, and those of Girona and Illes Balears, working on it. Each university is responsible for a specific subproject. The Universitat de Girona is in charge of developing the navigation systems and the mechatronics for the underwater vehicle, which will be coupled to the manipulator robot prepared by the Universitat Jaume I. The Universitat de les Illes Balears is responsible for providing support in scheduling and offering guidance on the right steps to be taken in order to achieve the autonomous navigation of the robot, by using advanced techniques of computer vision.

KONGSBERG and WFS to develop world's first AUV through-ice location and communication system

July 1, 2009 — via Kongsberg Maritime

New solution will improve viability of sub-ice AUV operations.
Kongsberg Maritime, the leading marine and offshore technology company behind the sophisticated HUGIN and REMUS (Hydroid) Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) has joined forces with Scottish communication technology company, WFS, to develop a unique wireless system for locating and communicating with AUVs in ice conditions.

Marport awarded contract for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

July 1, 2009 — via Marport

Marport, a leading subsea acoustics technology company, announced today that that it has been awarded a contract valued at approximately C$1 million to supply its SQX-1 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) to Geodetic Offshore Services Limited (www.goslng.com).

Robust Software Architecture for Robots

July 1, 2009 — via NASA Tech Briefs

Generalized software can be readily tailored for specific applications.

Determining Locations by Use of Networks of Passive Beacons

July 1, 2009 — via NASA Tech Briefs

Networks of passive radio beacons spanning moderate-sized terrain areas have been proposed to aid navigation of small robotic aircraft that would be used to explore Saturn’s moon Titan. Such networks could also be used on Earth to aid navigation of robotic aircraft, land vehicles, or vessels engaged in exploration or reconnaissance in situations or locations (e.g., underwater locations) in which Global Positioning System (GPS) signals are unreliable or unavailable.

New Unmanned Baby Sub to Protect Coastal Waters

July 1, 2009 — via BAE Systems

In a move to help combat the growing threat of explosive mines hidden in shallow coastal waters such as ports and harbours and to increase the protection available to world shipping, BAE Systems has launched its first unmanned autonomous submarine to detect and deal with this newfound threat.

The 50kg vessel, called Talisman L, uses high-definition forward and sideways looking sonars, as well as a host of multi-view cameras. It has a high degree of manoeuvrability and can turn within its own length and is able to operate at depths of 100 metres for anything up to 12 hours. With a top speed of more than five knots, it can hover and move around in any direction.