Key technologies towards the vision of complex autonomous underwater operations: From project SMIS to MUM
Efficient monitoring of large-scale deep-sea areas gain importance, especially with regard to marine resources, habitat mapping and environmental changes. In general, there are competing approaches with the use of survey vessels or autonomous vehicles. In this context, the presentation will examine the key technologies towards the vision of complex autonomous underwater operations using multi-vehicle setups. To ensure a robust mission management in disturbed environments the autonomous or better highly automated systems demand for innovative solutions for communication and localization, guidance, navigation and control, vehicle interaction as well as fault tolerance.
The focus of project SMIS (Subsea Monitoring via Intelligent Swarms) was to develop autonomous teams consisting of an unmanned surface vehicle (USV), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and a seabed station (SBS) enabling deep-sea operations up to 6.000m and a mission endurance of one week. Base functions for vehicle “networking”, cooperative path planning and mission execution as well as vehicle interaction have been developed and tested in extensive open water trials. Project MUM moves one step further and brings the supply vessel under water.
The weather conditions on the world’s oceans are often rough and difficult to forecast. To ensure that work on the open seas is safe and efficient a new class of unmanned underwater vehicle is necessary, the Large Modifiable Underwater Mothership, or MUM. MUM is breaking with old conventions: Its unique modular design allows its rearrangement for each deployment and the long-range operations are performed largely autonomously. Possible activities range from heavy-duty payload operations to stationary deep-sea tasks, always associated with AUVs and ROVs.