Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

By: Andrew Pipes

Outline

• Ocean Discovery

• History of AUV

• Use of the AUV

• Future Applications

Ocean Discovery• In 1492 Columbus sailed the

ocean blue…

• Cartographers and explorers were the first to map the vast oceans of the earth

• The Navy was soon interested in understanding the ocean in deeper terms

• The ocean takes up the largest surface area of the earth, thus making it difficult to explore

History of the AUV• First “AUV” may have packed a bigger punch than our

modern day vehicles– Robert Whitehead created the first AUV while in search for the

torpedo in 1866

• In the late 50’s the first true AUV was created– Stan Murphy, Bob Francois and Terry Ewart developed SPURV

(self propelled underwater research vehicle)

• Throughout the 60’s and 70’s the AUV’s advanced greatly through technology– There is a shift towards understanding the predictability of

ocean activity

History (cont.)

• REMUS: There are currently over 50 vehicles in operation with over 20 different configurations

• Odyssey-Class of AUV is the new generation in ocean exploration– AUV is made to: • Dock• Recharge• Download Data• Send Messages

Use of the AUV

• Search and Recovery of Government Property

• Prediction of Waves and Currents

• Readings for depth, salinity, pressure and temperature

• Pictures of visual light, bioluminescence

• Discovery of never seen before species and footage

Future Applications• The future of the AUV is

open to a wide variety of possible models, applications, configurations and uses.

• NeMo’s application- NeMo can be contacted via satellite and sent to active underwater volcanic activity in a timely manner