Technology and Applications of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

by Griffiths; Gwyn

• ISBN13: 9780415301541
• ISBN10: 0415301548
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-11-28
• Publisher: CRC Press

Summary

The oceans are a hostile environment, and gathering information on deep-sea life and the seabed is incredibly difficult. Autonomous underwater vehicles are robot submarines that are revolutionizing the way in which researchers and industry obtain data. Advances in technology have resulted in capable vehicles that have made new discoveries on how the oceans work, and have dramatically reduced the cost to industry of surveying the seabed. Technology and Applications of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles describes the technologies that have made this happen, as well as a host of applications from fish abundance studies to finding diamonds beneath the sea. There is tremendous scope for further innovation beyond the topics discussed, and this book will help the next generation of engineers and scientists in academia, industry and government laboratories, to deliver those advances.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	vii
Foreword	ix
Introduction	xi
Abbreviations and acronyms	xvii
Distributed Hardware-in-the-loop Simulation for Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Development -- Issues and Applications	1	(18)
Jonathan Evans
David Lane
Power Sources for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles	19	(18)
Suleiman M. Abu Sharkh
Gwyn Griffiths
Andrew T. Webb
Autonomous Buoyancy-driven Underwater Gliders	37	(22)
Russ E. Davis
Charles C. Eriksen
Clayton P. Jones
Solar Powered Autonomous Underwater Vehicles	59	(18)
D. Richard Blidberg
Mikhail D. Ageev
Advanced Materials and their Influence on the Structural Design of AUVs	77	(16)
Peter Stevenson
Derek Graham
Docking Systems	93	(16)
Robin Galletti Di Cadilhac
Attilio Brighenti
Propulsion Systems for AUVs	109	(18)
Suleiman M. Abu Sharkh
AUV Tasks in the Offshore Industry	127	(12)
Edwin F.S. Danson
Multidisciplinary Ocean Science Applications of an AUV: The Autosub Science Missions Programme	139	(22)
Autosub Science and Engineering Teams
Defence Applications for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles	161	(18)
Simon Corfield
Christopher Hillenbrand
Detailed Seabed Surveys with AUVs	179	(24)
Bjørn Jalving
Karstein Vestgard
Nils Storkersen
AUVs for Surveys in Complex Environments	203	(14)
Anders Bjerrum
Cargo Carrying AUVs	217	(10)
James S. Ferguson
Semi-submersible AUVs	227	(18)
James S. Ferguson
AUV Sensors for Marine Research	245	(34)
Lawrence C. Langebrake
Logistics, Risks and Procedures Concerning Autonomous Underwater Vehicles	279	(16)
Gwyn Griffiths
Nicholas W. Millard
Roland Rogers
The Legal Regime Governing the Operation of AUVs	295	(20)
E. D. Brown
References	315	(16)
Index	331