ANT has recently developed a similar recovery system for our own autonomous vehicle. ANTs current system lifts a vehicle of lighter negative buoyancy (~64lbs rather than 200 lbs). The system is also designed to operate at less maximum depth (200 m, rather than 900 ft). These changes will necessitate the use of a larger volume lift bag and a modified compressed gas canister for the MK54 torpedo.
Benefit: While the Navy application is significant, multiple other companies involved with deployment of autonomous underwater vehicles and equipment would also benefit from such a system. Many underwater platforms rely on a single point of failure emergency recovery system due to size and weight constraints. The design proposed here would serve as a small, autonomous, simple and cost effective addition to the primary recovery system on many existing marine equipment platforms. ANT believes this system would be desirable for a variety of platforms such as the Bluefin-9, 12 and 21 in addition to other systems that could utilize an autonomous recovery system for prototyping or long term utilization.
Keywords: recovery, recovery, cannister, gliders, torpedos,
