Think Outside the Hull - USNI

[SeaKingTacco]

They do suffer from severe top hamper, a cutdown version would reduce that effect, but the radar image would still be significant. With the advent of unmanned refueling UAV, I wonder if we will eventually see smaller refueling carriers, that fly only drones and helicopters. They would provide refueling services and possibly communications and surveillance UAV's for a fleet or region. I suppose the takeoff and landing characteristics of a refueling UAV would be the deciding factor.

As for underwater comms, I worked with SFU Underwater Research Lab in the 90's while they were trying to develop autonomous underwater vehicles. It is incredibly hard to send data through the ocean, even for a short distance. I suspect any underwater comms the Chinese have is limited to very simple information and the rest will be dumped through a surface antenna on occasional pop ups. 

That is my guess, too. I suspect the Chinese have worked out a ULF method of cueing UUAVs to come to the surface to get/dump traffic. If that is not the case, I cannot figure out how they have bent/broken the laws of physics.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Do the Chinese use VLF comms for their subs?

 

[SeaKingTacco]

:dunno:

 

[Colin Parkinson]

We used to use the USN VLF signals for mining exploration, you take instruments to measure the signal and about 2 months later the USN would release details on the signal strength and directions as I recall. From there you would have to adjust your readings and then any variations would be potential ore bodies.


According to this site they have 2 sites and looking at them on google they are/where active https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_VLF-transmitters

 

[Kirkhill]

Curiousity.

Does an antenna need to stand proud of the ocean surface (perpendicular and supported by a buoy) or can a floating wire on the surface send and receive signals?  And how difficult/easy would that be to detect?

 

[SeaKingTacco]

VLF antennas are very long. They trail behind their vehicles. I am unaware that the antennae orientation does much of anything, but I have no practical experience with that band of radio waves.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

If the Chinese found a way to use VLF signal, there is no way the Americans don't know about it. You just can't hide a VLF signal.

The US VLF Subnet used to operate with such power level that no one on earth was unaffected  ;D. The submarines needed to reel out at least 2 Km of antenna behind them to get any signal, and even then, the antenna had to be "floated" to within 100 feet of the surface, because below that, the signal was unreliable, and the speed of transmission was so slow that very short coded instructions were all that could reliably be passed on. If they are using sound - well, it doesn't travel that fast underwater and again, the amount of power that would have to be put behind the signal is incredible. There's a reason we mostly use tethered vehicles for underwater work.

If the Chinese have found a "real-time" way of relaying unmanned underwater vehicle mass data, they have discovered some new rules of physics that has eluded the rest of mankind so far.

I seriously have my doubts.

 

[Kirkhill]

Thanks to both.  My education continues.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

With modern computing power, I suspect the "gliders" passively listen, if they hear a noise that fits a certain profile like a sub, they monitor it for a bit, pop to the surface and transmit their data, they likely also pop up now and again to reset their navigational fix, tell home their alive and accept minor updates.

One option is that you could have bottom laid torpedoes that sit quietly, then the underwater drone, patrols the area, if it gets a target, it might go to the surface, transmit information, if given the go ahead it sends out a signal to the nearest torpedo that wakes up and goes into a predetermined hunt pattern for the target.   

 

[a_majoor]

A more 3 Dimensional Navy will have a much greater airpower component. While this example uses USAF assets, there is no particular reason that any Navy can't develop or purchase air assets for similar roles. The large Japanese and Russian seaplanes are one way of going about this, but land based aircraft like the Poseidon or the Aurora can also fulfill many of these roles as well. In the future large UCAV's capable of staying aloft for many days might also fulfil some of these roles as well:

https://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/B-1B-Rules-The-High-Seas-10-15-2011.asp

B-1B Rules The High Seas
by James Dunnigan
October 15, 2011

A U.S. Air Force B-1B has successfully used laser guided JDAM bombs against moving naval targets. These tests involved the B-1B using its Sniper targeting pod to put the laser beam on the target. The JDAMs homed on the laser light reflecting off the moving target ships. This is the latest of many air force heavy bombers that have served as maritime patrol and anti-ship aircraft. Back during World War II, thousands of B-17 and B-24 bombers (and many two engine bombers) served to patrol and control vast ocean areas. In the last few decades, the B-52 has been active in this area. For example, for the last few years, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been using B-52s to check out suspicious merchant ships approaching North America, often when the ships are still about 2,000 kilometers from the coast. The B-52s use their targeting pods to take pictures of the ship, and transmit those back to DHS. A B-52 can do this while taking part in a training exercise. B-52s have a lot of jobs to do over the oceans.

This is largely because maritime reconnaissance has been revolutionized with the introduction, and combining, of lightweight search radars and targeting pods. With the targeting pod, you can stay high (6,500 meters/20,000 feet) and far away (over twenty kilometers) and still get a close look. Thus a B-52 with a targeting pod is an excellent naval reconnaissance aircraft, as is the more recent B-1B.

 B-52s and B-1Bs also practice dropping naval mines. This is something the air force has been doing since World War II, and with great success. The current air force naval mine is the Mk-62 "Quickstrike." This is basically a 227 kg (500 pound) bomb, with a sensor package attached to the rear. There are three different sensor packages, each providing a different set of sensors to detonate the mine. The Mk-62 is a "bottom mine," which is dropped in shallow water, and then detects a ship passing above using pressure (of the ship on the water), magnetism (of the metal in the ship's hull), or vibration. The sensor also comes with a computer, to enable the mine to follow certain instructions (like only detonate for ships that meet a certain criteria.)

The B-52 and B-1B drop the mines at an altitude of about 300 meters (1,000 feet), while moving at 500-600 kilometers an hour. The mines are usually dropped in known shipping lanes, especially those that serve as approaches to a major port. During World War II, air dropped mines proved devastating to Japanese shipping. Same thing when they were used against North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

The B-52s were first equipped with anti-ship missiles (for testing) in the 1970s, and were given Harpoon missiles as regular equipment in the 1980s. But smart bombs have proved to be nearly as useful, and a lot cheaper than Harpoon. The B-52 was, until recently, the cheapest heavy bomber to operate, and favored for maritime patrol. But the B-52 is getting very old and more expensive to maintain. So now the B-1B is the low cost operator and the first aircraft when the air force is called to help out with sea control.

 

[Kirkhill]

https://youtu.be/FC9EJhs0pc0

https://www.expouav.com/news/latest/meet-naviator-drone-can-fly-just-easily-can-swim/

A "Drone" (RPS) that can fly and can swim.

And - perhaps just as curiously - can be controlled by radio both in the air and underwater - that long trailing wire seen in the you tube video at the top probably offers a clue.  It is not a tether.  It is free at the distal end.

October 25, 2016

Meet the Naviator – A Drone that Can Fly Just as Easily as it Can Swim

Jeremiah Karpowicz

Emergency Response & Search and Rescue

Power, Process & Utilities

Surveying & Mapping

The concept of a drone that can fly just as easily as it can swim has many different commercial applications. The need of a drone to be able to operate in inclement weather is an issue in first response incidents of all types, because response professionals can’t wait for conditions to improve before sending out a drone. Perhaps of even greater importance is the ability for an air/water drone to be able to rapidly deploy into the air and instantly transition to an underwater environment to perform a task.

This kind of vehicle can also significantly ease the complications that professionals are currently dealing with, since many survey applications need to first be reached by helicopter or boat before the underwater vehicle can be deployed. This can all be simplified with a single air/water vehicle.

Part submarine, part aircraft, the “Naviator” is just that. It’s the brainchild of F. Javier Diez-Garias, Associate Professor Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Rutgers, and he’s looking to use the Naviator to redefine the expectations we’ve come to associate with drones and other autonomous devices.







Meet the “Naviator”

The Naviator has been designed to provide the kind of reliability professionals want and need from a UAV, but it’s not just about incremental improvements to existing technology. Intended to operate in the air just as easily in the water, the drone that initially started off as a student project is somethingthat Diez has pushed to see evolve since the very beginning.

“This was a project I proposed to our senior students”, Diez explained. “In this particular student project, the goal was to build an air/water drone. After initial discussions with the students, we settled back in 2013 on a drone with a buoyancy system to surface the vehicle to the water and take off. Since then we have moved away from the buoyancy system but it was the original idea that got us started.”

There are students, professors and even entrepreneurs all across the world who have similar ideas around how similar projects might be able to make an impact, but the team at Rutgers realized they were working on something with serious potential early on. As part of the testing, the team filmed the drone going in and out of a kitty pool and it allowed them to realize how easy it was for the drone to go in and out of the water.

Being able to go in and out of the water is a key component of the drones’ ability to operate in inclement weather. Since it was designed from the ground up to be able to operate underwater, by default it is capable of operating in intense weather. During the design phase the team made sure that all the electronics, cables connectors, motors and everything else were capable of handling high pressures underwater which is beyond what would be needed to survive in a rain or snow storm.

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Mapping, Scientific and Commercial Implications

While the goals associated with creating a drone that can swim just as easily as it can fly are ambitious on a technical level, that ambition goes far beyond such technical details. The team at Rutgers envisions that the Naviator could create the means to map the entire ocean quickly and efficiently. Doing so would allow anyone to lookup how to reach a certain underwater location, similar to how everyone currently uses Google Maps. Being light, fast and maneuverable, the Naviator could open up countless mapping and commercial opportunities.

Those sorts of mapping capabilities have obvious commercial applications, but the functionality of the Naviator itself might prove to be even more beneficial. The need to map structures such as piers, bridges, oil platforms and off-shore wind turbines can be complicated since many of them have components that are both in and out of the water. By allowing operators to easily input some basic parameters, the drone will eventually be able to autonomously perform a mission in the air and water without an operator. Such capabilities will have an impact in many different fields.

“I think this is going to be a gold mine for researchers,” Diez continued. “The Fish and Wildlife community has already shown interest in these vehicles for tracking fish spawning, but I believe we are going to have the bigger impact on the commercial space.”

The scientific breakthroughs of the Naviator, from the propulsion system, to the buoyancy design, to control methods in air/water, have already helped redefine expectations around the necessity to gather continuous data in a commercial setting. There’s often a break between surveying what’s underwater and what’s above water, and avoiding that break can be critical. It’s something the Naviator can even do in less than ideal conditions. Water currents can be strong, and the Naviator can operate close to 3.5 knots, although their goal is to eventually get to 10 knots.

The search and rescue applications are evident, but the inspection of waterways, ships and seaports are just a few of the not so obvious places where we might see it being utilized. Additionally, surveying man-made or natural environmental incidents such as oil and chemical spills, algae blooms and coral bleaching from the air just as easily as the sea could mean an entirely new approach around assessing and solving these issues of critical importance.



jfbdpkhachlmmekmThe Present and Future of the Naviator

The technology behind and capabilities of the Naviator have come a long way since Diez initially proposed the concept to his students back in 2013. The fifth generation of the Naviator is being tested, and the two vehicles that have been recently built are the NV5-Eva and NV5b. The first one is meant to conduct autonomous missions that Diez and his team just recently demonstrated. The second is tethered and much larger which allows the team to develop more intense capabilities such as the speed of the drone, all of which will lead to something even more powerful.

“We’re excited about the work we’re currently doing on autonomous drone operation and integration of LiDAR and 3D vision sensors for surveying”, Diez continued. “Longer term, we hope to have a big impact on the commercial space by opening new doors to doing surveys and other missions that before we didn’t think were possible or were so complicated that were not considered feasible. For instance, being able to quickly map 100 square miles underwater with a few meter resolution could become a reality with this technology.”

Diez and his team are conducting what is considered basic research at Rutgers. It looks at the fundamentals in control, propulsion, communication and optimization methods, but they’re looking to transition to the commercial applications that he’s mentioned have so much potential. That includes applications like additional systems integration, scaling manufacturing, fail safes, and security. Putting together the resources to handle that transition is the main reason they’re looking for investors, since Rutgers is obviously not set up for such large-scale commercial endeavors. It might seem like a difficult barrier to cross, but such things are insignificant once you realize how far they’ve already come.

“Many people said to me that both air and water operation was not possible,” Diez concluded. “We have taken down this barrier. Our technology is a reminder that innovation on the platform end is not only possible but needed. There has been so much focus on the data/sensor part that we forget that there’s a great deal that can be done with the platform itself. We hope to keep pushing the envelope to reach extreme environments such as deep ocean exploration, and extreme temperatures.”

It’s clear that there are scientific, environmental and commercial applications for the results of that push. We’re just at the beginning of seeing and understanding how important those applications will be, but rest assured, they’ll be significant in ways we can only begin to imagine.

How fast could a swarm of "drones", operating as a multi-nodal network, transmit a message across the entire swarm, and, how far could that network spread the message?