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The Marine Physical
Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, owns one
medium-sized autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and will
be acquiring a second, more advanced AUV in 2003.
The existing vehicle is an Odyssey IIb made by Bluefin
Robotics, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts. It was delivered
in December, 2000, and has since been deployed in two at-sea
experiments in Summer, 2001, and Summer, 2002.
The AUV has the following characteristics:
A mid-sized Bluefin
21 AUV from Bluefin
Robotics, Inc. will be acquired in 2003/early 2004.
This vehicle embodies significant improvements in all areas
of AUV technology including a highly modular design, vectored
thrust propulsion, state-of-the-art energy storage and advanced
user interface and control software.
It is subdivided into three parts: tailcone assembly houses
the propulsion, control, and navigation sensors; the middle
section can be varied in length to accommodate a wide variety
of payloads, and the nose section contains the energy storage
and forward deployed payload sensors.
The vehicle is 21 inches in diameter, has a minimum length
of 2.5 m which is expandable to 5 m by varying middle section
modules, is presently depth-rated to 3000 m (it will be
upgraded to 4500 m rating in the next two years), has a
maximum speed of 5 kts, and a mission duration of nominally
20 hours depending on payload.
Recently, the tail
cone and control software on the existing Odyssey IIb were
upgraded to those of the state-of-the-art Bluefin 21 vehicle.
Additionally, the silver zinc battery pack has been replaced
with rechargeable lithium batteries that are easier to maintain
and have much longer service life.
The Deep Tow Systems Group at the
Marine Physical Laboratory is involved in payload design,
development, and integration with the Odyssey IIb and Bluefin
21 AUV's. They also provide the engineering support for operating
and maintaining the AUV's.
For more information, contact:
Richard Zimmerman
(858-534-6593
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