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Research Projects >> Intelligent Controls and Communications Systems >> Current Research Project >>
Magnetic Signature Assessment System using Multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs)
The primary focus of this research is the integration of inexpensive, easily deployable magnetic measurement systems into small autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). These AUVs are then trained to work together to assess the magnetic signature of a forward deployed ship or submarine. To a lesser extent, the use of acoustic sensors mounted on small AUVs to assess the acoustic signature of ships is also evaluated. The acoustic work is of secondary priority to the magnetic measurements. Without these assessments, the mitigation of a ship’s signature emitted as a targeting source for mines and enemy torpedoes, especially in littoral regions such as the Persian Gulf, cannot be performed. Mines have been responsible for the majority of ship casualties in the modern era, so having the ability to assess a ship’s or submarine’s vulnerability to magnetic and acoustic detection is essential for eliminating ship casualties from mines.
Currently, ships and submarines are degaussed in a naval shipyard. While onboard systems allow the vessels to compensate for inevitable ship magnetic field changes acquired as a result of deployed transoceanic voyages, the missing piece is an accurate real-time assessment of those changes. This portable assessment system is important to preserve a vehicle’s stealth condition relative to potential threats. This system could be achieved by installing magnetic and acoustic sensors on multiple unmanned vehicles deployed from a ship that would travel in a formation under the vehicle. These vehicles would travel on a pre-programmed pattern underneath and around the ship and telemeter the signature and tracking information back to the ship where it would be processed to determine the ship’s stealth condition. The ship’s stealth condition could then be improved by making adjustments to the ship’s onboard EM compensation systems. The majority of the proposed work for developing a prototype EM and acoustic portable assessment system is done at the University of Idaho (UI) while the testing is performed at the Acoustic Research Detachment of the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Bayview, Idaho.
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