Research Summaries

Back Aqua-Quad - Hybrid Mobility and Sensing in Support of Collaborative Undersurface Warfare

Fiscal Year 2018
Division Research & Sponsored Programs
Department Naval Research Program
Investigator(s) Dobrokhodov, Vladimir N.
Jones, Kevin D.
Smith, Kevin B.
Leary, Paul R.
Sponsor NPS Naval Research Program (Navy)
Summary NPS team continues developing a novel long endurance anti-submarine warfare platform, Aqua-Quad (AQ), that is capable of underwater sensing, on-demand mobility, local and long-haul communication in response to target detection and/or a remote center command. The distributed nature of the system is twofold. Each individual platform features deep water sensing, data processing, and hybrid communication and mobility. As a collaborative system it features MANET-enabled AQ vehicles capable of cooperative sensing and distributed data fusion. Together, it enables persistent sensing of the undersea environment, near real-time data access, and extended endurance of autonomous operation. The approach has three directions. First, it finds optimal sensing and processing solution for the DAQ system at the thermocline depth; processing includes high-rate sampling, filtering, and FFT analysis to reduce the data rate while keeping it suitable for target tracking. Second, it designs two types of trackers; first - to enable single node tracking and the second one is an asynchronous filter capable of fusing updates from the neighboring AQs. Third, feeding back the outcomes of the previous directions, it re-evaluates the SWAP-based design of the AQ vehicle focusing on the energy budget. Initially we addressed the SWAP constraints, feasibility of the energy balance, and the mission and path planning. Currently we focus on enabling the sensing, data processing, and cooperative target tracking. This includes the vector sensor and preprocessing capabilities in underwater segment, power and high-bandwidth data transition to/from surface level via a tether, embedded coding of the target tracking math, and the onboard integration of Iridium and MANET links. The project promotes a collaborative effort between the Physics and MAE departments at NPS and the NUWC Keyport division. If approved, the NUWC is contributing its Naval Innovative Science & Engineering (NISE) funds to leverage the work.
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