Review of Literature
“Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) provide a mobile sonar platform for local environmental characterization and mine hunting missions in areas that are prohibitively dangerous or otherwise inaccessible to manned vessels” (Edwards and Schmidt 2615).With the use of these vehicles, a series of way-points are uniformly employed in order to sample a region of interest (Edwards and Schmidt 2615).
Experts continue to develop new techniques and methods to enhance the capabilities of AUVs. For example, experts assert that efficiency and efficacy will be greatly increased if the AUV has the capability of reacting to its perceived environment. This was investigated by Edwards and Schmidt (2615). Hayes and Jenkins (71) also proposed the use of ordinary ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) in the study of both the directional and scalar properties of waves in open or ice-covered water in order to improve the capability of AUVs when used for under sea ice missions. On the other hand, Fallon et al. (1461) experimented on the “implementation of an online algorithm for the cooperative localization of submerged autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) supported by an autonomous surface craft.” For this study, the researchers used the WHO (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) acoustic modem for exchanging vehicle location estimates while simultaneously obtaining estimates of the inter-vehicle range (Fallon et al. 1461).
Our team will start with an existing prototype. Many of the prototype’s currently functioning systems will be retained. Some upgrades will be implemented and some new systems will also be put in place.
As the electrical team, our team’s design goals are the following:
In addition, we aim to implement a more sophisticated sensor system for the submarine’s use.
These systems come primarily in the form of integrated computational electrical systems, which will be developed as part of a joint effort with the computer science team. This will involve the following steps:
Implementing the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) by using raw sensor readings, which potentially use analog or digital filtering mechanisms.
Implementing passive sonar systems
Minimizing the electrical noise in the existing sensor systems.
It should be noted that each of these joint sensor projects will not mandate success or failure of the design. These sensor systems simply indicate the ideal and desired outcomes and should be treated as secondary design goals unless problems associated with them become debilitating to the design of the submarine’s control system.
Stakeholder Identification and Considerations
Aside from the client, other stakeholders include financial stakeholders such as the client’s investors who may also be investing in the client’s projects. Another group of stakeholders are the miners and engineers who will actually use the completed AUV. A third group of stakeholders are these miners’ and engineers loved ones as well as the general public, and a fourth group would consist of the environmental organizations..
For the financial stakeholders, we should ensure that our AUV project is developed using quality parts and in a cost-efficient manner in order to maximize the stakeholders’ profits or gains. For the miners and engineers who will eventually use the AUV, it is important for us to make sure that the AUV we develop provides them with the maximum amount of safety and enables them to easily operate the AUV such that their attention won’t be unnecessarily deviated from their mission. As well, these miners’ and engineers’ loved ones are considered stakeholders as we should ensure that the AUV’s capabilities will enable the engineers and miners to successfully complete their missions and be able to fulfill their other obligations. Similarly, the general public will benefit from the results of these missions and so it is important for the AUV to ensure these missions’ success in as far as successfully transporting the miners to and from their missions. Finally, environmental organizations can be considered as another group of stakeholders in that we should ensure that the development of our AUV does not produce environmental wastes and that its eventual use does not harm the environment, especially the underwater resources.
Works Cited
Edwards, Joseph R. and Schmidt, Henrik. “Exploiting autonomous underwater vehicle mobility
for enhanced sonar performance.” Acoustical Society of America 115.5 (2004): 2615-
2616. Print
Fallon, Maurice, Papadopoulos¸Georgios, Leonard, John J. and Patrikalakis, Nicholas M.
“Cooperative AUV Navigation using a Single Maneuvering Surface Craft.” The
International Journal of Robotics Research 29.12 (2010): 1461-1474. Print.
Hayes, Daniel R. and Jenkins, Adrian. “Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Measurements of
Surface Wave Decay and Directional Spectra in the Marginal Sea Ice Zone.” American
Meteorological Society 37 (2007): 71:83. Print.
