Ice Class AUV Development

Abstract

C & C Technologies, Inc. of Lafayette, Louisiana is spearheading a technical research program to advance the state of the art regarding under ice Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) survey operations. This program, funded by Shell, focuses on five areas of research, which include: 1) Remote Stations for AUV Navigation and Communication, 2) AUV Recovery by Net, 3) AUV Recovery by ROV, 4) AUV Upward Looking Multibeam Sonar, and 5) Collision Avoidance. Form factors for the remote stations were developed following the evaluation of the potential hardware components and an examination of AUV mission requirements. Analysis was performed to determine how best to utilize the remote stations to gain the maximum utility of an AUV under the ice. Two methods for facilitating the recovery of an AUV under ice were examined: 1) recovery by a deployed net and 2) recovery by an ROV. Net recovery research involved the construction of a full-scale prototype to deploy through a hole in the ice, extend, and capture the AUV. Research into ROV recovery under ice included developing a methodology to hold the AUV in place so it could be captured by the ROV. This involved the evaluation of several scenarios, which included securing the AUV to the sea floor with a drop anchor and making the AUV negatively buoyant with either a floodable ballast tank or by the release of syntactic foam. Research into the integration of an upward looking multibeam involved the analysis of currently available systems. A comparative analysis of power consumption, size, weight, and software interfacing of the potential candidate systems was performed. C & C collaborated with Kongsberg Maritime to enhance the HUGIN AUV's collision avoidance system for under ice navigation and for marine mammal detection. This paper provides details on each of these five areas of research and details the scope, methodology, findings, and resulting recommendations. Concept Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are common and effective tools for seabed surveys and subsea surveillance, with benefits over conventional tow-fish systems that include reduced operational footprint, independence from weather and sea conditions, and better data quality. Their use in the Arctic is challenged by the presence of sea ice, which requires technological developments in the key areas of navigation and communications, through-ice launch and recovery, and collision avoidance.

A Review of Risk Analysis Research for the Operations of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

“…Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are effective platforms for navigating underwater or under ice to provide automated measurements without human intervention (Xu et al, 2013;Brito and Griffiths, 2016). The high level of autonomy of AUVs makes them an ideal tool for multiple data-gathering applications in scientific (Wadhams et al, 2006;Dowdeswell et al, 2008;Jenkins et al, 2010), commercial (Kleiner et al, 2011), military (Rothrock and Wensnahan, 2007), and geopolitical areas. In recent research, AUVs are increasingly deployed in harsh environments such as under sea ice or ice shelves in the Antarctic (Nicholls et al, 2006;Jenkins et al, 2010;Cadena, 2011;Williams et al, 2015;Gwyther et al, 2020) and the Arctic (Wadhams et al, 2006;Dowdeswell et al, 2008;Salavasidis et al, 2016) regions.…”

A Behavioral Probabilistic Risk Assessment Framework for Managing Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Deployments

“…In the Arctic, gathering information from beneath sea ice has long had scientific (Dowdeswell et al 2008;Nicholls et al 2006;Jenkins et al 2010) and military (Rothrock and Wensnahan 2007) drivers. AUVs are being increasingly used for polar missions, including for commercial (Kleiner et al 2011) and geopolitical purposes. The science community has recognized that there is a substantial risk of not completing missions and a risk of losing the vehicle when operating in polar seas (Griffiths et al 2003), and it has developed mathematical methodologies to assess and manage those risks (Brito et al 2010).…”