Robotic Solutions for Arctic Transit Corridor Cargo Autonomous Undersea Vehicles

Abstract

The development of regular navigation through the Arctic Ocean transit transport corridor from Southeast Asia to Western Europe can provide economic advantages comparable in importance with the construction and operation of the main canals between the oceans – the Suez and Panama. Cost-effective year-round navigation on the northern transport corridor is possible with an undersea (under-ice) scheme of cargo delivery. The construction of reinforced concrete Cargo Autonomous Undersea Vehicles (CAUVs) and the lighter transportation scheme allow solving technical and economic problems. The complicated scheme of undersea transportation gives birth to a new class of ships and raises a number of unsolved technical tasks. Among them are the loading of lighters on CAUVs, the formation of CAUVs trains and the locomotion control tasks. All these tasks require control of a large number of parameters and are complex for humans. Robotic CAUVs are regarded as an option of choice to deal with these control tasks.