Underwater exploration has fascinated man for generations and will continue for generations to come. There is still so much that we do not know about the ocean and what lies beneath. Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) aim to help us dive deeper into the oceanic depths in order for us to gain some help insight. As technology continues to advance, so does our capability to go further into the oceans depths without subjecting harm to a person.
According to Petillot, Antonelli, Casalino, and Ferreira (2019), UUVs are those vehicles that can operate without anyone onboard while operating within minimum operator interactions. There are many types of unmanned underwater systems being developed depending on the type of application the system needs to accomplish. With the future of sea exploration, UUVs provide some of the best insight without having anyone in the vehicle. This expands the capability to explore further and deeper along with possessing advanced technology and capabilities.
Some of the current capabilities for UUVs include sensing, navigation, communication, and planning to ensure state of the art applications. Sensing provides insight of the drones environment to safely operate efficiently. The sensors can include camera technology to further advance the insight capabilities for even more in depth detection and recognition. Another type of sensor are those that perform acoustic measurements to create synthetic altitude mapping so the UUV can operate at any level and provide data feedback to the operator. The navigation capabilities provide the UUV the ability to estimate where the UUVs location is and provide the necessary guidance to the operator controls. Communication capabilities are essential for efficient underwater exploration so the operator can remain in control over the UUV and the surrounding environment without physically being present under water. The UUV can also receive necessary messages from the operator if a new mission is needed or other demands are requested. The UUVs planning capabilities provide for the most autonomy to remove some levels of human interaction. The UUV can perform by itself and complete the mission with little human contact. However, with this specific capability, there are some major associated challenges. Someone will have to pre-program the UUV for the specific planned mission along with creating the appropriate algorithm. Along with that, when the UUV goes further way or deeper into the ocean, bandwidth gets sketchy and the UUV reliability goes down.
I agree with the article that these UUVs provide the best opportunity for man to explore deep ocean levels without putting someone in potentially dangerous situations. Sensors provide helpful insight for the UUV to create sonar mappings of underwater landscaping. These sensors can also be equipped with cameras that provide some crazy imagery that may never have been captured from a manned underwater vehicle due to the lack of depth diving ability. I also agree with the navigation ability to ensure safe operation of the UUV. However, this capability may be more efficient on a manned vehicle as a person would be physically within the vehicle and fix any issues directly instead of the gap between UUV and operator. The capabilities and technology that UUVs possess provide for the best insight. However there are some small kinks that still need to be worked out like the communication distance and bandwidth issues. I am sure there are ways to ensure this issue is mitigated depending on the UUVs mission. Within a manned vehicle the planning aspect is not really needed like within an UUV as there is a physical operator to perform the mission without any specific software algorithms needed to run the vehicle. Further testing and development of technology is needed to ensure seamless integration of these UUVs to better and fully understand the oceanic depths.
Thanks,
EMW
References
Narayanan, A., Rajeshirke, P., Sharma, A., and Pestonjamasp, K., (2020). Survey of the emerging bio-inspired unmanned aerial underwater vehicles. Retrieved from https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/810/1/012078
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