Unmanned Surface/Underwater Vehicles

Controlling the Seas Introducing a New Concept in Autonomous Surface/Underwater Vehicles

The boundary between the sea and sky is an important place to be. It's the critical connecting layer for commercial and military information exchange between the undersea world to aerial, space and shore. Being present at this boundary between sea and sky, with cost-effective endurance in challenging conditions, requires the use of autonomous surface vehicles.

Designing long duration autonomous surface vehicles requires access to inexpensive, low-power computing; a persistent source of power; and durable mechanical engineering. The volume markets created by cellular telephones and video gaming has totally transformed the economics of computing. Coupled with creative mechanical designs that harness energy from the ocean for vehicle propulsion, and new generations of solar cells for electricity, the pervasive application of Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASVs) is more practical. New advancements in communications, and sensor technologies are also enabling developments in ASV and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) while paving the way for increased coverage, rapid information delivery, increased safety and, lower cost.