Bow Riding Unmanned Water-Borne Vehicle

Abstract

A system and method are provided for launching and recovering an unmanned, water-borne vehicle (UWBV) from a mother ship. The UWBV mimics the behavior of dolphins and is positioned ahead of the ship in preparation for bow riding. The UWBV uses a guidance system to position and keep in the bow wave. A high-frequency (HF) sonar transceiver array aboard the ship computes and sends course corrections to maintain the UWBV within the bow wave. The frequency range of the HF array can be 100 kHz or higher due to the short distance between the ship and the UWBV. Accordingly, the HF array can have a small aperture allowing for accurate bearing resolution. Course corrections can be sent on a near-continuous basis such that changes in thrust and rudder angle can be minimized to allow for accurate control of the UWBV.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 30, 2009
Accession Number
ADD020407

Entities

People

  • Anthony A. Ruffa

Organizations

  • United States Department of the Navy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Beams
  • Acoustic Detectors
  • Arrays
  • Frequency
  • Guidance
  • High Pressure
  • Inventions
  • Navigation
  • Power Converters
  • Pressure Gradients
  • Relative Motion
  • Transceivers
  • Unmanned
  • Unmanned Systems
  • Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
  • Unmanned Vehicles
  • Vehicles

Readers

  • Acoustical Oceanography.
  • Oceanography.
  • Robotics and Automation.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy