Ship hull inspection by hull-relative navigation and control

Author

Vaganay, J. ; Elkins, M.L. ; Willcox, S. ; Hover, F.S. ; Damus, R.S. ; Desset, S. ; Morash, J.P. ; Polidoro, V.C.

Author_Institution

Bluefin Robotics Corp., Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

2005

fDate

2005

Firstpage

761

Abstract

MIT and Bluefin Robotics designed the Hovering Autonomous Underwater Vehicle with a focus on ship hull inspection missions for anti-terrorism and force protection. Our hull-relative navigation and control are primarily based on a Doppler velocity Log that the vehicle keeps pointed normal to the hull by means of a tilt actuator. A dual frequency identification sonar (DIDSON) is used to inspect the hull. The sonar is mounted on a separate tilt actuator in order to control the grazing angle relative to the hull. The vehicle has been successfully tested on the decommissioned heavy cruiser "USS Salem (CA 139)". The results of a demonstration to the US Navy-are reported in this paper.

Keywords

inspection; oceanographic equipment; position control; remotely operated vehicles; ships; sonar; underwater vehicles; Doppler velocity Log; Hovering Autonomous Underwater Vehicle; antiterrorism; dual frequency identification sonar; force protection; hull-relative control; hull-relative navigation; ship hull inspection; tilt actuator; Actuators; Frequency; Inspection; Marine vehicles; Protection; Remotely operated vehicles; Robots; Sonar navigation; Underwater vehicles; Velocity control;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

OCEANS, 2005. Proceedings of MTS/IEEE

Print_ISBN

0-933957-34-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/OCEANS.2005.1639844

Filename

1639844