Intervention AUV

About: Intervention AUV is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 980 publications have been published within this topic receiving 14130 citations.

UUV teams, control from a biological perspective

Abstract: Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs) are used extensively for salvage operations, ocean floor surveying and numerous inspection activities that support a wide range of underwater commercial activities. In deep water (greater than 1000 ft) an ROV is the platform of choice because of the depth and endurance limitations for human divers. The key disadvantage to an ROV is the requirement for the long tether. The tether greatly inhibits the speed of the ROV, requires a ship with deck gear capable of handling this cable, and significantly restricts ship movement while deployed. Un-tethered Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) have entered the commercial market and have demonstrated the ability to perform deep-water surveys faster and cheaper than towed vessels. With further technological advances, UUVs have the potential for supplementing and even replacing ROVs for many deep-water operations because of the cost and problems associated with the tether. One promising scenario for the near future is to use an ROV or surface ship to control multiple UUVs in a local work area. Typically in this scenario the UUVs are used to extend the sensor footprint of the ROV or surface ship. Another area of interest is the UUV team concept. A stereotypical UUV team would be a heterogeneous mix of several low-cost specific purpose vehicles, guided and supported by one or two higher cost control vessels. Because of the severe restrictions that the sub-sea environment places on communication and positioning, precision underwater navigation is difficult. Currently most precision underwater navigation relies on some sort of infrastructure such as surface ships or underwater beacons placed in known positions. Using these assets as reference-points sub-sea navigation is carried out. Some situations require that the environmental and/or commercial attributes of an area be assessed before an infrastructure exists. In order to do this the UUV team must be able to navigate to an area, carry out its task and return without any pre-existing infrastructure or step by step guidance. Given basic assumptions about the type and frequency of sensor input we present a biologically inspired, decentralized methodology for safely and efficiently moving a loose formation of UUV's to and from the task area with the goal of minimizing outside guidance.

Autonomous underwater vehicle collision avoidance for under-ice exploration

Abstract: On 22 August 2004 the Autosub-2 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) was on its return leg of a 144 km, 24 h under-ice mission in the Arctic sea over the Northwind Shoal off the northeast Greenland coast when it found its path blocked by a deep ice keel that had drifted across its planned mission route. After three attempts, the Autosub found a way around the keel and continued on its way to rendezvous with its mother ship. This paper reports the development, testing, and operation of collision and obstacle avoidance techniques used in the Arctic and Antarctic under-ice expeditions of the Autosub-2 AUV.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles as Tools for Deep-Submergence Archaeology

Abstract: Marine archaeology beyond the capabilities of scuba divers is a technologically enabled field. The tool suite includes ship-based systems such as towed side-scan sonars and remotely operated vehicles, and more recently free-swimming autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Each of these platforms has various imaging and mapping capabilities appropriate for specific scales and tasks. Broadly speaking, AUVs are becoming effective tools for locating, identifying, and surveying archaeological sites. This paper discusses the role of AUVs in this suite of tools, outlines some specific design criteria necessary to maximize their utility in the field, and presents directions for future developments. Results are presented for a recent joint AUV-towed system survey and a demonstration of current mine-hunting technologies applied to archaeology.

Deployment and retrieval of seismic autonomous underwater vehicles

Abstract: Apparatuses, systems, and methods for the deployment of a plurality of autonomous underwater seismic vehicles (AUVs) on or near the seabed based on acoustic communications with an underwater vehicle, such as a remotely operated vehicle. In an embodiment, the underwater vehicle is lowered from a surface vessel along with a subsea station with a plurality of AUVs. The AUVs are configured to acoustically communicate with the underwater vehicle or a second surface vessel for deployment and retrieval operations. The underwater vehicle and/or second surface vessel is configured to instruct the AUVs to leave the subsea station or underwater vehicle and to travel to their intended seabed destination. The underwater vehicle and/or second surface vessel is also configured to selectively instruct the AUVs to leave the seabed and return to a seabed location and/or a subsea station for retrieval.

Demonstration of a vision-based dead-reckoning system for navigation of an underwater vehicle

Abstract: This paper describes a dead-reckoning navigation system for hover-capable underwater vehicles operating close to the ocean floor. Navigation is presented as an extension of underwater station-keeping and mosaicking. It combines real-time vision-processing to build a mosaic of the area of interest, an image-based user interface to specify desired vehicle locations, and vision-based dead-reckoning to compute the robot's position in the mosaic. This system provides a high-level interface between the vehicle and the pilot, who specifies the goal (e.g., go to and hover over this feature) instead of the commands to execute the task (e.g., rotate to the left, go forward, stop). Thus, it is an enabling technology for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV)-for which commanding actuators directly is not feasible-and a useful high-level interface for remotely operated vehicles (ROV). This new capability is the result of our on-going research with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).