Great Next Unmanned Maritime Vehicle
Based on the article: The Next Great Frontier For Drones Lies in The Ocean
Introduction
The quest for efficiency, speed, reliability, accuracy, and accuracy that characterizes the unmanned ground vehicle and unmanned aircraft vehicle has not left the marine world on the sideline. While the military sectors have been at the front of significant technological innovation, the commercial and the consumer sector do not miss the opportunity to grab the potential benefit of the new inventions.The commercial industries and consumers have already taken great interest in UAV and UGV by utilizing the technology in applications, such as agriculture, customs and excise, fire services and forestry, aerial photography and film, power line inspection. Predictably, the unmanned maritime vehicle (UMV) has found its way to the deep ocean not only for military operations but also for application, such as fishery, oceanography, deep ocean, sea and river underwater and surface observations, research, data collection, and analysis. Paul Sarconi (2017) notes, " consumer's drone conquered the sky.Now they look to the sea."
UMV Relevance
Unmanned technology is being desirable not just because of its innovations but also the advantages and convenience of using a very challenging environment outweighs those that a manned technology could provide. The Australian Defense echoes this argument as follow:
The benefits of marine robotic technologies are being realized beyond their original defense and scientific purposes. In the same way that Unmanned Airborne Systems (UAS) are transforming defense, industrial and scientific applications through their ability to deliver timely, high-quality data at a lower cost and risk than conventional techniques, marine “drones” equipped with mission-specific sensor and communication payloads are demonstrating the same attributes for ocean-based tasks. Sarconi (2017) highlights in the article, "The next great frontier for drones lies in the ocean depths," companies involved in a couple of applications like oceanography, fishery, film-making, and undersea exploration.
UMV Applications
The two types of UMV (unmanned surface vehicle and unmanned underwater vehicle) are no longer novelties as fishers can use the technology to study the aquatic world to accomplish successful fishing. The UUV can go deeper undersea to collect data on the type of fish in a particular location and weather. For example:
The Chinese PowerVision created the PowerRay for people who enjoy fishing. Loop your fishing line through it, toss it in the water, and send it on its way. Onboard sensors and sonar help locate fish, map the marine landscape, and gauge the temperature of the water (Sarconi, 2017). Fishers can capitalize on the benefit that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) or autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) offers. The OpenRov fits for ocean exploration and film-making as the locomotive " can dive to 328 feet, zip along at a top speed of 4.6 mph (it uses three DC motors), and record video in 1080p", says Sarconi. Offshore oil drilling demands continuous monitoring of the platform the application of USV and UUV (AUV or ROV) can mitigate hazards that could lead to water contamination or explosion by early detection of conditions conducive to triggering such risks. Manley (2017) wrote:
The offshore oil sector is still challenged, but the sentiment appears to be that the bottom has passed and some optimism exists. Applications such as seafloor resident vehicles and new tools for inspection repair and maintenance (IRM) are appearing. Kongsberg's Eelume offering is one example. Ocean Infinity's fleet approach to survey using unmanned maritime vehicles (UMVs) and UUVs is another example of progress in the commercial sector.
The Challenge
Unlike the UAV and UGV, the UMV faces a rough environment that limits the technology speed, and the undersea environment is very unpredictable with changing water temperature, moving obstacles in murky water that can obstruct the camera line of vision. High-quality sensors are the solution to overcome these challenges. The communication is not as excellent as the radio-signal performs well in the air than underwater. Research is still underway about building an underwater acoustic network that can connect multiple unmanned maritime vehicles.
Conclusion
The UMV has brought a new wave of possibilities to apply the technology in maritime operations, such as fishery, oceanography, filming, ocean exploration( data collection and analysis). The range of applications of the UMV is increasing as technology continue to try to overcome communication and uncooperating nature of ocean water. Improving the underwater communication by implementing a wireless network is still a work in progress.
References
Based on the article: The Next Great Frontier For Drones Lies in The Ocean
Introduction
The quest for efficiency, speed, reliability, accuracy, and accuracy that characterizes the unmanned ground vehicle and unmanned aircraft vehicle has not left the marine world on the sideline. While the military sectors have been at the front of significant technological innovation, the commercial and the consumer sector do not miss the opportunity to grab the potential benefit of the new inventions.The commercial industries and consumers have already taken great interest in UAV and UGV by utilizing the technology in applications, such as agriculture, customs and excise, fire services and forestry, aerial photography and film, power line inspection. Predictably, the unmanned maritime vehicle (UMV) has found its way to the deep ocean not only for military operations but also for application, such as fishery, oceanography, deep ocean, sea and river underwater and surface observations, research, data collection, and analysis. Paul Sarconi (2017) notes, " consumer's drone conquered the sky.Now they look to the sea."
UMV Relevance
Unmanned technology is being desirable not just because of its innovations but also the advantages and convenience of using a very challenging environment outweighs those that a manned technology could provide. The Australian Defense echoes this argument as follow:
The benefits of marine robotic technologies are being realized beyond their original defense and scientific purposes. In the same way that Unmanned Airborne Systems (UAS) are transforming defense, industrial and scientific applications through their ability to deliver timely, high-quality data at a lower cost and risk than conventional techniques, marine “drones” equipped with mission-specific sensor and communication payloads are demonstrating the same attributes for ocean-based tasks. Sarconi (2017) highlights in the article, "The next great frontier for drones lies in the ocean depths," companies involved in a couple of applications like oceanography, fishery, film-making, and undersea exploration.
UMV Applications
The two types of UMV (unmanned surface vehicle and unmanned underwater vehicle) are no longer novelties as fishers can use the technology to study the aquatic world to accomplish successful fishing. The UUV can go deeper undersea to collect data on the type of fish in a particular location and weather. For example:
The Chinese PowerVision created the PowerRay for people who enjoy fishing. Loop your fishing line through it, toss it in the water, and send it on its way. Onboard sensors and sonar help locate fish, map the marine landscape, and gauge the temperature of the water (Sarconi, 2017). Fishers can capitalize on the benefit that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) or autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) offers. The OpenRov fits for ocean exploration and film-making as the locomotive " can dive to 328 feet, zip along at a top speed of 4.6 mph (it uses three DC motors), and record video in 1080p", says Sarconi. Offshore oil drilling demands continuous monitoring of the platform the application of USV and UUV (AUV or ROV) can mitigate hazards that could lead to water contamination or explosion by early detection of conditions conducive to triggering such risks. Manley (2017) wrote:
The offshore oil sector is still challenged, but the sentiment appears to be that the bottom has passed and some optimism exists. Applications such as seafloor resident vehicles and new tools for inspection repair and maintenance (IRM) are appearing. Kongsberg's Eelume offering is one example. Ocean Infinity's fleet approach to survey using unmanned maritime vehicles (UMVs) and UUVs is another example of progress in the commercial sector.
The Challenge
Unlike the UAV and UGV, the UMV faces a rough environment that limits the technology speed, and the undersea environment is very unpredictable with changing water temperature, moving obstacles in murky water that can obstruct the camera line of vision. High-quality sensors are the solution to overcome these challenges. The communication is not as excellent as the radio-signal performs well in the air than underwater. Research is still underway about building an underwater acoustic network that can connect multiple unmanned maritime vehicles.
Conclusion
The UMV has brought a new wave of possibilities to apply the technology in maritime operations, such as fishery, oceanography, filming, ocean exploration( data collection and analysis). The range of applications of the UMV is increasing as technology continue to try to overcome communication and uncooperating nature of ocean water. Improving the underwater communication by implementing a wireless network is still a work in progress.
References
- Australia Defense . (2015). Unmanned Maritime Systems . Retrieved March 5, 2018, from http://www.defence.gov.au/Whitepaper/docs/256-Fastwave.pdf
- Manley, J. E. (2017). Everything is going unmanned. Ocean News & Technology, , 8.
- Sarconi, P. (2017, June 03). The Next Great Frontier for Drones Lies in the Ocean Depths. Retrieved March 07, 2018, from https://www.wired.com/2017/03/underwater-drones/
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