under water sea trial of AUv was held on 7-jan-2011
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Http://www.goiit.com/posts/list/new...nderwater-vehicle-to-be-conducted-1065787.htm
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Sea trials of Autonomous
Underwater Vehicle to be
conducted this month-end
Date 7 Jan 2011 13:32:17 IST ,
thehindu Tags: Engineering
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The sea trials of the Autonomous
UnderwaterVehicle (AUV)
designed and developed by the
Central Mechanical Engineering
Research Institute (CMERI),
Durgapur — a constituent
establishment of the Council of
Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR) — are slated to begin off
the Chennai coast during the last
week of January.The 'AUV-150,'
as the prototype is named, is
built to operate 150 metres
under the sea. It was developed
in technical collaboration with
the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT), Kharagpur.
Theperformance parameters of
the lab-scale model, developed
by IIT, acted as a precursor to
the prototype developed by
CSIR-CMERI. The project is
sponsored by the Ministry of
Earth Sciences.
The cylindricalAUV is capable of
independently carrying out a
plethora of underwater
operations, including ocean
floor-mapping, surveillance
activities and oceanographic
studies, based on data gathered
using its onboard sensors.
TheAUV underwent a series of
sheltered water trials at the
Defence Research and
Development Organisation's
(DRDO) Underwater Acoustic
Research Facility (UARF) at
Kerala's Idukki Reservoir over
the last two years. The final leg
of the still-water trials was
conducted in the reservoir
between September and
October 2010. CMERI Director
Gautam Biswas said: "The
National Institute of Ocean
Technology [NIOT] earlier
developed a Remotely Operated
Vehicle [ROV] with the capability
to dive much deeper. Our
vehicle, however, is different in
that it is not remotely operated
from a control station ashore. It
has an onboard computer that
can be pre-programmed to carry
out specific tasks, which makes it
a smart vehicle endowed with
the ability to devise its own
stratagems to execute a mission.
The payload and the
configuration are determined by
the nature of the mission it is
tasked with."
During the sea trials, the AUV's
image processing capability
would be assessed.
"Besides, its capacity to model
environmental parameters such
as temperature gradient, current,
depthand salinity gradient
would be scrutinised. Once the
technology is proven through
extensive sea trials, the AUV can
be customised for applications
like close-to-coast undersea
monitoring, mine
countermeasures, cable and
pipeline surveys, besides a host
of oceanographic studies,"
Professor Biswas said.
Features
TheAUV has hybrid
communication channels. It uses
radio frequency while on
surface, but switches to acoustic
communication when
submerged. "The AUV has its
own power, propulsion,
navigation and control systems.
For movement underwater, it
locates own geographical
position using navigational
sensors, while its forward-looking
sonarfacilitates obstacle evasion
and safe passage. For effective
operation, it is equipped with
navigational sensors like the
inertial navigation system, depth
sonar, altimeter etc., and
payload sensors like camera, side
scan sonar and the like. It has
extra roll stability, a cruising
speed of up to four knots, and
weighs about 490 kg," Professor
Biswas said.
'Major project'
The CSIR-CMERI held numerous
meetings with experts from IIT-
Kharagpur and NIOT during the
development of the vehicle. "We
also made a presentation at the
Naval Science and Technological
Laboratory [NSTL] at
Visakhapatnam, which is
developing its own AUV. The
AUV-150 is one of the major
projects executed by the CSIR
family, and based on a few such
projects, a joint R&D Council of
CSIR-DRDO has been formed.
The Indian Navy has also shown
immense interest in our project,"
Professor Biswas said.
The'AUV-150' was developed by
a team of scientists of the
Robotics and Automation division
of CSIR-CMERI under the
leadership of S.N. Shome.
