Aqua-Quad - Hybrid Mobility and Sensing in Support of Collaborative Undersurface Warfare
Author
Dobrokhodov, Vlad
Jones, Kevin
Smith, Kevin
Leary, Paul
Testa, Joseph
Date
2018-04Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Project Summary: The project builds an experimental model as a proof of concept of a novel anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platform, AquaQuad. The envisioned vehicle is a hybrid, including features and capabilities of an energy independent drifting sonobuoy and a multirotor vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). As such, AquaQuad integrates a multicopter UAV with a tethered acoustic sensor, environmentally hardened electronics, communication links, and a solar recharge system. As a single system the AquaQuad design is easily scalable which enables its modification to different sensor modalities, weight of payload, communication, and energy harvesting requirements. In turn, multiple cooperative AquaQuads are designed as hybrid-mobile, collaborative platforms that ride on ocean currents and fly over significant distances when required by the mission. Flight is triggered to enable rapid repositioning for submarine tracking with lower dilution of precision (DOP), collision avoidance, and communication with neighboring vehicles. Overall, the distributed swarm of energy independent and autonomous AquaQuads represents an information harvesting and communication system that, depending on the specific objectives, can be focused on various naval and civil applications. To date the project has identified the mathematical models of key subsystems of the AquaQuad in the major modes of operation. They include two distributed (over depth) components - the surface and submerged units, connected via a tether, which operate autonomously in passive search while in energy harvesting drift and in energy bursting flight modes; a number of sub-modes is envisioned/included to address the specific nature of silent operation under strict communication and energy constraints. An experimental setup of the surface unit and the submerged data acquisition (DAQ) system has been built. Operational capabilities of separate components are verified in controlled laboratory experiments. System identification experiment has been performed to identify the maximum achievable capabilities of the ARM-based data acquisition system and the potential bottlenecks of the envisioned information processing architecture. The power distribution and communication subsystem has been conceptualized and prototyped in hardware to enable practical evaluation of the power transmission and data exchange bandwidth over a dual wire tether. The corresponding communication mechanism (hardware and the communication protocol) is outlined to enable embedded microcontroller implementation. The long haul and local wireless communication are adopting the existing Iridium and 802.11x solutions where the bandwidth available drives the underlying decision making and data preprocessing tasks.
Description
NPS NRP Executive Summary
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.NPS Report Number
NPS-18-N124-CRelated items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Stigmergic Control of Dual Direction Communication Ferry Nodes for Denied Communication Environments
Hietpas, Andrew (2018-04-17);All military forces rely on effective communication to gain and maintain tempo on the battlefield. With the proliferation of electronic warfare capabilities, battlefield communication will be increasingly challenged. The ... -
Stigmergic Control of Dual Direction Communication Ferry Nodes for Denied Communication Environments [video]
Hietpas, Andrew (2018-04-17);All military forces rely on effective communication to gain and maintain tempo on the battlefield. With the proliferation of electronic warfare capabilities, battlefield communication will be increasingly challenged. The ... -
Rapid Flight Control Prototyping - Steps Toward Cooperative Mission-Oriented Capabilities
Dobrokhodov, Vladimir; Jones, Kevin; Kaminer, Isaac (2013-05);The paper describes the latest advancements in the development of the Rapid Flight Control Prototyping system that were motivated primarily by the need to enable cooperative missions of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles ...