Marine and Environmental Systems

Underwater Technologies Lab

150 West University Boulevard, Melbourne, Florida 32901 Tel: (321) 674-8096

Coordinator: Dr. Stephen L. Wood Email: swood@fit.edu Location: Link Bldg.

The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Laboratory in the department of ocean engineering at Florida Institute of Technology is part of a national effort to develop an "Integrated, Sustained Ocean Observing System," see U.S. Global Ocean Observing System. The AUV Lab is primarily concerned with the development of hardware and software for navigation, path planning, collision avoidance, fault detection and recovery, and communication for obtaining oceanographic data over an extended period at extremely deep depths.

Research Areas

The Underwater Technologies Laboratory is actively researching several topics associated with the deployment of high technology systems beneath the surface of the ocean. The goal is to support the development of such systems for deployment by the oceanographic and industrial community and also to advance the state of the art of underwater engineering globally. Current research interests include:

AUTONOMOUS OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM (AODAS)

It is the intention of the ocean engineering program at Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech) to design and develop an inexpensive autonomous oceanographic data acquisition system that is capable of operating at depths to 6000 meters. The system will comprise four key components: 1) an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), 2) an underwater refueling and information exchange station, 3) an oceanographic mooring similar to those used by NOAA for measurement of surface conditions, and 4) a satellite connection between the mooring and Florida Tech's base-of-operations.

Investigation AUV - (primary focus) This AUV is configured to take in the full advantages of neural networks, acoustic mapping, visual mapping and fuzzy logic to discover and explore unknown regions such as the inside of a ship wreck or the exploration of an underwater cave system.
Surveyor AUV - This AUV is configured like a torpedo. Long distance and speed are its primary design points. This configuration is to do a general survey of an area using a side-scan sonar and/or video.
Harvester AUV - This AUV is configured for the harvesting of seaweed, or any type of underwater growth. This would be primarily targeted for the pharmaceutical industry.
Analyzer AUV - This AUV is configured to remain on location for long periods of time using minimal energy to analyze some oceanographic or biological specimen.
Crawler AUV - This AUV is to be configured for heavy work specimen collection. This device is to retrieve specimens by digging, drilling, or any other heavy data collection method.

Other Ongoing Projects at Florida Tech:

AUV - Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

(Under Ice AUV) - This AUV is configured to be as small as possible to investigate very small places. The actual minuteness will be dependent upon the size of the computer boards and machine hardware. 1st use will be under ice data collection.
(Surf Zone AUV). 0 to 30 ft depth (Surf Zone). Mine detection
(The Barracuda) The Barracuda is Florida Tech's Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) that will compete in the 5th Annual International AUV Competition sponsored by AUVSI.

ROV - Remotely Operated Vehicles

(ROV 1) Remotely Operated Vehicle (with manipulators soon to be added).
(ROV "The Hornet") A small versatile remotely operated vehicle for everyone.
(Crawler 1) The development of a coastal AUV/ROV crawler for shallow water data collection.
(Crawler 2) The development of a coastal ROV for shallow water in the surf zone.

Other Activities:

Facilities

The Underwater Technologies Laboratory has a 500 square foot electronic workshop in the Frueauff Building with all of the systems necessary to maintain the Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. Florida Tech also operates a 60 ft research vessel "Delphinus" which is available for at-sea operations.

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