The AUSI/IMTP solar powered autonomous undersea vehicle

If we are to understand the impact of the world´s oceans on our environment, we must gather data with which to understand that impact. Low cost, unmanned, long endurance mobile sampling systems are, in many cases, a desirable alternative to the currently used, oceanographic research vessels requiring large investments in manpower and equipment, or by buoyed instrument strings constrained to a fixed position. The Autonomous Undersea Systems Institute (AUSI) along with the Institute for Marine Technology Problems (IMTP) in Vladivostok has been investigating the characteristics and limitations of a solar energy system as an energy source for a long endurance AUV. The ultimate AUSI program objective is to develop a small, low cost, solar powered AUV system for the marine community with an endurance in excess of one year. A prototype solar powered AUV test bed has been developed. This prototype vehicle is being used to evaluate the results of a number of analyses related to the use of solar energy to power a long endurance data acquisition system. This paper presents the results of in-water tests of the solar AUV prototype and of the solar energy subsystems