Abstract

There is a growing pressure to investigate how to design and build the unmanned underwater vehicles of different types which are devoted towards performing many tasks under the water surface according to the data missions. During the recent years the Department of Ship Design and Subsea Robotics, Faculty of Ocean Engineering and Ship Technology, Gdansk University of Technology designed and built a few types of unmanned underwater vehicles to satisfy the navy activities. Between the vehicles is the MORSWIN vehicle which is a multipurpose high power fully electric Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) system. The MORSWIN system may be utilized as an observation ROV vehicle without the additional equipment. To extend its capabilities the purpose oriented modules can be installed. A standard module weights up to 60 kg and is 0.3 meters high. Higher modules may be designed to contain the requested equipment. The next example is the GLUPTAK Disposable Mine Destruction Vehicle (DMDV) system which can be used to identify and destroy the naval mines. Its target can be located up to 400meters under the water surface from a launch point. A typical mission profile calls for destruction of a target detected by other means. Normally the target would be detected by means of bow sonar of a mine hunting ship. the missions against targets indicated by the other sources are also very likely. Another example of our design is the autonomous underwater vehicle called ALBATROS. This is a simple cruise platform. It is similar to a small, slowly swimming torpedo. It is able to carry a sensor suite along pre-planned route and depth. the basic equipment can be used for the oceanographic measurements, cartography and imaging of sea bottom and linearK industrial structures as well. For the precise navigation and remote control the ALBATROS vehicle is equipped with several navigation means including the compass, Doppler velocity log, GPS receiver and hydroacoustic transponder. A remote control at minimum level is assured by the underwater hydroacoustic link as well as GSM and WiFi modems for the surface control and communication.

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