Introducing the AUUV: An Autonomous Underwater Utility Vehicle

Abstract

Abstract The unprecedented partnership of Boeing, Fugro and Oceaneering has resulted in the development of an AUV incorporating many unique features. This paper introduces this new AUV, its modular payload and its extended weather launch and recovery system. With AUVs finally approaching commercial viability, they are expected to be the tool of choice for deep water site and corridor (route) surveys providing improved productivity, reduced cost and the ability to survey in areas previouslyinaccessible. This paper presents an overview, comparing productivity, sensor quality and positioning accuracy of the new AUV with a deep tow system using identical sensors. Introduction At the Underwater Intervention Conference of 2001, Boeing, Fugro and Oceaneering announced a joint effort to field a commercially viable AUV within a year. That year is approaching an end and the AUV is now in Sea Trials. At the start of this program we were confident that AUVs could collect excellent data on par with Fugro's DeepTow II and do so much faster than deep towed systems. The partnership was formed to address poor reliability of commercial AUVs, weather-limited launch & recovery systems that often required deployment of a small boat to effect recovery, and to achieve full autonomous operation with the required navigation accuracy. The teaming of a survey company with an ROV engineering company along with a military contractor, as unusual as it sounds was a natural given our goals for the AUV. Boeing brought to the effort experience with autonomous vehicles where reliability and true autonomous navigation were normal mission objectives. Oceaneering took on the task of building an all weather solution for AUV launch and recovery. Fugro brings to the partnership its extensive experience with deep water surveys, its positioning systems and its knowledge of remote sensing. The intent of this paper is to focus on the unique aspects of this new AUV and how these bring us closer to the goal of conducting routine surveys with AUVs. Background AUVs are just another platform to carry sensors underwater. For survey, the typical sensor package includes a sidescan sonar (SSS) a sub-bottom profiler (SBP) and a multibeam swath bathymetry system (MB). The sidescan system provides a map of the acoustic reflectivity of the seafloor to either side of the tool. The swath bathymetry system provides the depths of the seafloor to either side of the tool and the subbottom profiler penetrates the seafloor directly beneath the tool to image the sediment layers. Alternative Sensor Platforms. In this section, we will compare alternatives to the AUV for deep water surveys and discuss the advantages and disadvantages. Near Surface Sensors. Near surface sensor platforms include vessels with hull mounted multibeam systems, shallow towed sidescan and bathymetric systems along with the use of 3-D seismic data. All of these near surface sensors share the advantages of wide swath and fast speed of data acquisition. They also all share limited resolution.