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Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

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AUV-150

February 2010
By Vantika Dixit

Researchers at Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) - the apex R&D institute for mechanical engineering under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – have developed India’s first indigenous autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The robotic vehicle is expected to complete the final sea trial by August 2010. The mega system can fulfill tasks such as seafloor mapping, coastal surveillance, mine countermeasure, and oceanographic measurements during adverse weather conditions.

Sponsored by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MES), the AUV has been built to operate 150 feet under the sea (see Specifications) to map the seafloor and collect sensor-based data. With no physical cable connection to the surface control station and possessing on-board intelligence and energy supply, the vehicle, designated as AUV-150, has much to boast about.

Autonomous underwater technology and underwater robotics are being vigorously pursued in many technologically advanced countries such as the U.S., Australia, Germany, Russia, Korea, and Japan. According to Gautam Biswas, director, CMERI, “The AUV technology will be an essential technology of the future as our dependence on ocean resources increases. The need for autonomous underwater vehicles is already being felt for activities such as inspection, location of objects, survey on the ocean floor, and surveillance.”

“AUV-150 will be tested in sea for seafloor mapping and monitoring of environmental parameters such as current, temperature, depth, and salinity. Once the technology is proven through extensive trial, the same vehicle with required customization may be used for other future applications such as coastal monitoring, military reconnaissance, mine counter measuring, cable and pipeline surveys, littoral zone sensing, and more,” says Biswas.

FEATURES

AUV-150 is a cylindrical-shaped carrier with streamlined fairing to reduce hydrodynamic drag. It is embedded with advanced power, propulsion, navigation, and control systems. The propulsion system comprises thrusters for generating motion in different directions to control surge, sway, heave, pitch, and yaw, while preventing the vehicle from rolling. Two arrays of cross-fins have also been fixed at the two ends to provide additional stability to the AUV. A lithium polymer battery powers the vehicle and a pressure hull contains its electronics and energy system.


The vehicle is programmed to carry out an underwater mission without assistance from an operator on the surface. For autonomous free movement under water, with no wires attached to the station on the surface, the vehicle determines its own geographical position with the help of navigational sensors. Its forward looking sonar system and navigational algorithm help the vehicle in avoiding collision with obstacles.

The autonomous vehicle is equipped with a number of navigational (inertial navigation system, depth sensor, altimeter, doppler velocity log, forward looking sonar, global positioning system through ultra- short baseline system, which is a method of underwater acoustic positioning and payload sensors (side scan sonar, camera, and CTD or conductivity-temperature-depth recorder). For smooth communication and distant intervention, the vehicle is equipped with hybrid communication system: it radio frequency on surface and acoustic under water.

The final prototype of the 4.8 meter-long AUV-150, with all its on-board subsystems, weighs approximately 490 kg. The vehicle also has positive buoyancy of approximately 30 newton to facilitate its retrieval in case of a power failure. However, the payload and configuration of the AUV will always be dictated by the mission requirements such as the one provided by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).

In 2009, a mock steel unit was tested at shallow basin towards validation of various algorithms. Based on the test data, the final prototype of AUV has been developed. In September 2009, the prototype was tested for a week at the Idukki lake in Kerala. Both pre-launch and post-launch checks were committed. During all trials, the mission was carried out with the help of a pre-compiled mission file which was stored in the memory of the on-board computational unit. The final prototype is now ready for sea trial even as work continues to fine tune various algorithms related to navigation, guidance, and control.

PURPOSE

Developed under the supervision of Sankar Nath Shome, group head - robotics and automation and Dean of School of Mechatronics, CMERI, AUV-150 is second only to Maya, a small autonomous underwater vehicle developed by the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa (another CSIR lab) in September 2009 to sense physical, biological, and chemical properties of the ocean and collect relevant scientific data.

“The working prototype of AUV-150 was developed by the Mechadronics group of CMERI in collaboration with IIT, Kharagpur. The performance parameters of the lab-scale model, developed by IIT Kharagpur, acted as a precursor of the prototype developed by CMERI. The final prototype is capable of exploring the seafloor for unlimited treasure which can be used for mankind, for example, minerals (metals, oil, natural gas, and chemicals), medicines, and food,” says Shome.

The vehicle is also expected to be used for search and rescue operations as well as for military reconnaissance. It is capable of conducting various kinds of surveys such as the bridge scour which is a process of removing sediments of sand and rocks around bridge piers; channel conditioning and clearance survey, which is a hydrographic survey involving determination of size, location, and sedimentation for a channel and requirements for dredging towards flood control measurements; and cable and pipeline surveys for monitoring and repair operations.

Long-term monitoring of seafloor for prediction of weather, habitat mapping, archaeological survey and monitoring of boundary limitations and route survey are other tasks that AUV-150 is expected to perform once the sea trial is over.

Following AUV-150’s successful completion, CMERI and the Naval Science and Technology Laboratory are now planning to launch a mega AUV project under the umbrella of CSIR and DRDO. India, therefore, may see a lot more technology developments in the year ahead.



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Another AUV devloped by DRDO.

How the heart of AUV was developed | idrw.org

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The heart of a nearly 1,500 kg robotic vessel that travels inside water — Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) — was developed by the Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) underwater vehicle is currently undergoing sea trials at about 100 metres below sea level. The four-metre long, 1.4-metre wide, flat fish-shaped vehicle can travel at a speed of about 7 km per hour at depths of up to 300 metres below sea level.

Heart of the vehicle

The control and navigation algorithms and guidance strategy are the three most challenging aspects of an AUV, and all these together are considered as the heart of the vehicle. They were developed by a team led by Prof. T. Asokan of the Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras.

The AUV has already passed the first stage of DRDO’s project level testing. There is now a proposal to expand the AUV project to a major development programme.

The project level testing is basically to prove that technological integration of the software developed by IIT Madras with the hardware is possible, and the integrated system works as a whole.

Further elaborating on the significance of the development programme, Prof. Asokan noted: “It is for multiple applications like transport and surveillance. There must be a separate AUV variant for each operation.” In the case of variants, only a fine-tuning of the algorithms and strategy is needed.

The robotic vehicle is fully pre-programmed — in terms of algorithms and strategy, and mission requirements — and piloted by an onboard computer. There is no control of the vehicle once it is released into water. “This is one of the biggest challenges,” he said.

The limited communication with the vehicle cannot be put to use for regular operation. It is reserved for emergency communications like aborting a mission or activating a vehicle recovery mechanism. Most of the AUVs are built with positive buoyancy that tends to bring the vehicle towards the surface, in case of any system failure.

In the case of the AUV that is being tested by DRDO, the positive buoyancy is 15 kg. The vehicle moves at 0.3-0.4 metres per second speed when it comes to the surface due to positive buoyancy.

“The AUV will require fool-proof navigation, control and guidance systems on board to meet the mission accuracy requirements,” Prof. Asokan said. “Even if one system fails, the mission will have to be abandoned and the vehicle recovered.

The control algorithm ensures that the various performance parameters of the vehicle, like speed and acceleration are achieved. Guidance strategy, on the other hand, is about planning a certain path to avoid obstacles and maintaining a required trajectory.

A navigation algorithm continuously monitors the location of the vehicle with respect to the desired location and corrects for any errors. The guidance strategy works in combination with navigation to maintain the pre-planned trajectory.

When the vehicle deviates from its intended path, the guidance and control systems activate the propellers (technically called ‘thrusters’) and control planes to ensure that the vehicle returns to the original trajectory and continue moving along the desired path.

The propeller configuration can be changed depending on the mission requirements. Movements in six different directions — upward and downward, forward and reverse, and left and right (port and starboard) — can be achieved by propellers placed suitably. Besides propellers, rudders and stern planes can also be used.

Simulations

Prior to developing the algorithms, Prof. Asokan and his team had to develop a dynamic model — mathematical equations of the robotic vehicle and payload. “Using the model we conducted many simulation studies to understand the performance and dynamic behaviour of the AUV,” he said.

For instance, the simulation studies helped the team to understand how a particular thrust given to the vehicle changed the performance parameters like acceleration and turning rate. “Once we understood the normal operating behaviour, we started developing the controllers for desired performance,” he explained.
 
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Still waiting for Rustom-2 .. Maybe by end of this decade will also see Rustom-H out of warehouse..
 

Our Armed Forces always gave priority to quality.They only need system that can perform flawlessly in any condition.
This is a state of art technology noone will give us this.

So the target will be in domestic or unarmed areas!

Indeed... You will have AURA for armed ones:D



Close to RQ-11 but different...

It would be a long R&D project but we will finish it.
 
Our Armed Forces always gave priority to quality.They only need system that can perform flawlessly in any condition.
This is a state of art technology noone will give us this.



It would be a long R&D project but we will finish it.

High quality products are available on your neighborhood county! :pakistan:

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This is Iranian method:

1 - copy

2 - upgrade the copy & make it bigger

3 - design & make your own!

This is the fastest way to have high quality products!

Rustom 2 will be inducted in 2018.

Video of low speed taxi trials of Rustom 2.


Can i have dimensions?
 
High quality products are available on your neighborhood county! :pakistan:

View attachment 105051

View attachment 105052

This is Iranian method:

1 - copy

2 - upgrade the copy & make it bigger

3 - design & make your own!

This is the fastest way to have high quality products!



Can i have dimensions?


Sorry dude I couldnt understand your first statement.
:D

Iran can do that .But we haveproblems if we applied that policy.Iran isa rival of West.But we have Western weapons in our arsenal.So copying it will cause diplomatic fallout.
That is why we always resorted in our unique design.
Look at those Rustom 2 considerably different than predator.
 

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