The Future of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles in the Military
In the early part of 2019, officials from the US Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) made it clear that the military was looking to explore the use of autonomous unmanned underwater vehicles for deep sea missions. The agency finds it beneficial to utilize the technology to provide data and mapping about the ocean floor and any objects that might pose a hazard in any future military missions.
The agencies future goal is to have an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle with the capability to travel long distances underwater with the ability to manipulate objects that the system might encounter. DARPA wants the autonomous system to have the capability to navigate, search, and localize without the need for any external communication. The system would rely on onboard sensors to complete all mission tasks.
Researcher first believed the remotely controlled vehicles could complete the task, but began to see that the use of an autonomous underwater vehicle is the best solution to fit mission needs. The use of remotely operated vehicles (ROV) is too costly, time consuming, and require additional resources, like a human operator. In addition, the remotely controlled vehicle does not have the capability to explore beyond the length of its tether to reach the ocean floor.
DARPA’s overall goal is to have a system that can provide high resolution data that can be utilized for navigation purposes at ocean depths where GPS navigation my not be reliable. DARPA wants to capitalize on all existing remote sensing technologies to provide mapping of the ocean floor without any external human interaction with the system.
The biggest benefactors from this project would be the US Navy. The US Navy believes that unmanned underwater vehicles are suited for a wide array of military missions. These unmanned vehicles are high flexible and can be configured for surveillance, submarine tracking, GPS way points, mine identification and destruction, and wartime mission strike support. The Navy believe the possibilities are endless. There has been great progress in the field of remote sensing for unmanned vehicles and the Navy want to utilize the capability to its fullest.
References
Keller, J. (2019). Future unmanned underwater vehicles with machine autonomy for deep-sea missions are focus of DARPA angler program. Retrieved from https://www.militaryaerospace.com/computers/article/16722046/future-unmanned-underwater-vehicles-with-machine-autonomy-for-deepsea-missions-are-focus-of-darpa-angler-program
Vavasseur, X. (2019). DSEI 2019: General dynamics mission systems launches new bluefin-12 UUV. Retrieved from https://www.navalnews.com/event-news/dsei-2019/2019/09/dsei-2019-general-dynamics-mission-systems-launches-new-bluefin-12-uuv/
