M.A.T.R.I.X.: Manned Amphibious Tracked Indian Explorer

Abstract

This paper presents a Manned Amphibious Vehicle that can be used for scientific research on land, coastal and shallow ocean regions. The salient feature of this vehicle is that it is designed to (a) locomote on land using track belts (b) float and sail on water, propelled by thrusters (c) freely dive underwater, propelled by thrusters and (d) move on the seafloor using track belts, up-to a water depth of 50 m. The vehicle will have three different combinations of power supplies, Diesel engine, Li-ion Batteries and Proton Exchange Membrane (P.E.M.) fuel cell. Underwater, the vehicle will be powered by batteries and can move with the help of thrusters. Fuel cells are used to make the vehicle even more efficient by reducing the electrical load on the batteries underwater. The basic hydrodynamic structure resembles that of a TURTLE and it has a low frontal structural area which would result in low drag force while moving forward. Lights, Cameras, Temperature Sensors, pH sensors, Heading Sensor, GPS (when travelling on land), Depth Sensor and other sensors are equipped on the vehicle. Based on the nature of investigations, pay load can be planned and integrated with the vehicle. Soda lime is used as scrubber in the human sphere for carbon dioxide removal. The utility of the vehicle is to study corals between 0-50 m of depth. This can run tests directly at a certain location without having to use a ship for transportation. The advantage of this vehicle is that it does not require any form launching or retrieval system. It can also be used for coastal environmental monitoring, shore line measurement to understand the erosion and accretion phenomena by utilizing the land vehicle mode, coral reef monitoring and biological observations in biosphere reserves by utilizing the free swimming vehicle mode and perform sea bed investigations with its track belt concept.