This was a joint Industry Project (JIP) with the U.S. Navy to develop the technology for navigation, data sensing, storage, and telemetry for a free-swimming robot submersible programmed to inspect underwater pipelines and structures.
Complete. Existing test bed vehicles were used to study the feasibility of unmanned, untethered robots for underwater inspection missions. The University of New Hampshire (UNH) test bed, EAVE-East evaluated acoustic navigation and communications. The robot is an open frame, clump-shaped vehicle, able to maneuver in three dimensions. It has undergone in-water testing around and through a simulated offshore structure. The Naval Ocean Systems Center (NOSC) test bed, EAVE-West, is torpedo-shaped for high running speeds, such as pipeline following. It navigates by magnetometers and communicates using fiber optics telemetry. These test beds can perform basic underwater tasks.
Because of independent interest in EAVE-West technology, NOSC has fabricated and assembled a similar test bed system in an enclosed hydro-dynamically faired vehicle.