Unmanned Systems in Maritime Search and Rescue
The disappearance of Malaysia Airline Flight 370 has remained a mystery that has challenged the scientific world until now. No one would think in the 21st an aircraft carrying 239 people could not be found after an extensive search that cost 160 millions of Dollars until the governments of Australia, Malaysia and China abandoned the search. Since March 8, 2014, when the airplane went missing, Ocean Infinity, (a company based in Houston, Texas) has not given up pursuing the wreckage search using eights autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) called Hugin.
The commercial Hugin has an endurance that can extend up to 50 hours of operations underwater, and comprises the following exteroceptive sensors:
-High resolution interferometric synthetic aperture sonar (HISAS) that produces high definition images and the bathymetry of the seabed
- High resolution interferometric synthetic aperture sonar
- Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) sensors
- Acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP)
-Multi-beam Echo Sounder (MBES)
The proprioceptive sensors encompass:
-Altimeter
- GPS
-Aided inertial navigation system (AINS)
According to Picard et. Al, (2018):
The new MBES data highlight the complexity of the search area and serve to demonstrate how little we know about the vast areas of the ocean that have not been mapped with MBES. The availability of high-resolution and accurate maps of the ocean floor can clearly provide new insights into the Earth's geological evolution, modern ocean floor processes, and the location of sites that are likely to have relatively high biodiversity.
Ocean Infinity’s CEO is confident this time the mystery could be solved since the Hugin’s integration of the seabed constructor and the six AUVs can scan (463 sq miles) per day. Margaritoff (2018) notes:
According to The Economist, a HUGIN can dive as low as 6,000 meters (3.7 miles), which easily lets them reach the ocean floor. Of course, having eight independent HUGIN working on different areas simultaneously makes this endeavor highly productive and efficient.
Adding the previously collected data to the current could improving the processing and the analysis of data that could show some common patterns or imageries. The huge datacenter can be the target of analysis using specific open-house algorithms contributing to the process of solving the mystery.
The wireless communication undersea is very challenging that combining the operation of the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) with the unmanned surface vehicles (USV) and the unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) will enhance the data transmission efficiency. UAV remote sensing can produce the surface current and the accurate weather (winds, air pressure, thermal distribution) of the area being searched.
The unmanned marine systems (UMS) are preferable to the manned systems since the vehicle can go undersea to places deemed dangerous for humans. The seabed offers a topology and an environment that increases the safety risk for manned aircraft. The other advantage the UMS offers is the search operation can go autonomously and automatically for more than 24 hours without interruption due to fatigue.
There is greater hope in the scientific community this time the mystery of the missing Malaysia Flight 370 will be solved, and we have many tools that contribute in scanning and understanding the ocean seabed.
References
The commercial Hugin has an endurance that can extend up to 50 hours of operations underwater, and comprises the following exteroceptive sensors:
-High resolution interferometric synthetic aperture sonar (HISAS) that produces high definition images and the bathymetry of the seabed
- High resolution interferometric synthetic aperture sonar
- Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) sensors
- Acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP)
-Multi-beam Echo Sounder (MBES)
The proprioceptive sensors encompass:
-Altimeter
- GPS
-Aided inertial navigation system (AINS)
According to Picard et. Al, (2018):
The new MBES data highlight the complexity of the search area and serve to demonstrate how little we know about the vast areas of the ocean that have not been mapped with MBES. The availability of high-resolution and accurate maps of the ocean floor can clearly provide new insights into the Earth's geological evolution, modern ocean floor processes, and the location of sites that are likely to have relatively high biodiversity.
Ocean Infinity’s CEO is confident this time the mystery could be solved since the Hugin’s integration of the seabed constructor and the six AUVs can scan (463 sq miles) per day. Margaritoff (2018) notes:
According to The Economist, a HUGIN can dive as low as 6,000 meters (3.7 miles), which easily lets them reach the ocean floor. Of course, having eight independent HUGIN working on different areas simultaneously makes this endeavor highly productive and efficient.
Adding the previously collected data to the current could improving the processing and the analysis of data that could show some common patterns or imageries. The huge datacenter can be the target of analysis using specific open-house algorithms contributing to the process of solving the mystery.
The wireless communication undersea is very challenging that combining the operation of the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) with the unmanned surface vehicles (USV) and the unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) will enhance the data transmission efficiency. UAV remote sensing can produce the surface current and the accurate weather (winds, air pressure, thermal distribution) of the area being searched.
The unmanned marine systems (UMS) are preferable to the manned systems since the vehicle can go undersea to places deemed dangerous for humans. The seabed offers a topology and an environment that increases the safety risk for manned aircraft. The other advantage the UMS offers is the search operation can go autonomously and automatically for more than 24 hours without interruption due to fatigue.
There is greater hope in the scientific community this time the mystery of the missing Malaysia Flight 370 will be solved, and we have many tools that contribute in scanning and understanding the ocean seabed.
References
Picard, K., Brooke, B. P., Harris, P. T., Siwabessy, P. J. W., Coffin, M. F., Tran, M., . . .
Sullivan, J. (2018). Malaysia airlines flight MH370 search data reveal geomorphology and seafloor processes in the remote southeast Indian ocean. Marine Geology, 395, 301-319. doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2017.10.014
Margaritoff, M. (2018, January 03). Underwater Drones on Mission to Find Malaysian Flight
MH370 Wreckage. Retrieved from http://www.thedrive.com/aerial/17334/underwater-drones-on-mission-to-find-malaysian-flight-mh370-wreckage
Comments