SBIR-STTR Award

To improve the at sea recovery of the Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle (RMMV), the Advanced Optical Systems (AOS) has teamed with Maritime Applied Physics Corporation (MAPC) to deliver a solution employing passive optical sensors capable of detecting 6DoF position with accuracies surpassing the human eye. The sensors are a key component of the proposed Autonomous Vehicle Recovery System (AVRS) that will provide rapid position and rate information and/or commands to ship control systems in response to motion between the RMMV and the capture spine. The AOS teams solution will also provide control messages to the Twin Boom Extendable Crane (TBEC) and the Remote Operator Panel (ROP). The added controls will generate position and rate messages for use by the TBEC control system to simultaneously manipulate up to eleven tag-lines attached to the recovery capture spine and RMMV. Removing the inherent human latencies from the current system and implementing controls of the ROP improves recovery by decreasing the time needed to align the capture spine with the RMMV receiver. Recovery of the RMMV is safer for personnel and equipment, therefore ship missions are not delayed due to long recovery sea details.

Benefit:
The AVRS will be modular and will be based on hardware and software that are proven through other similar modes of operation. Specifically, automating RMMV recovery will immediately reap the following: Improved mission readiness with decreased recovery mode time Decreased unsuccessful capture spine engagements with fewer physical blows to the vessel Decreased RMMV maintenance resulting in higher OPTEMPO Diminished hardware cycles resulting in decreased commands to the winches Dramatic reduction of operator strain with key recovery responsibilities focusing on safety monitoring AVRS is modular and scalable. It will have applications across the DoD for recovery of unmanned systems. The AVRS system could be added to a flight deck for recovery of inbound UAS. As the use of commercial unmanned systems increases, end game recovery requirements will increase. Additionally, an unobtrusive passive system will easily adapt to the civilian industry.

Keywords:
Control system, Control system, RMMV recovery in LCS-2, Docking, TBEC, AVRS, UAS, optical sensors

The Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle (RMMV), a vital component of the Remote Minehunting System (RMS), will soon become operational from the Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). At present, the RMMVs operating envelope is severely limited by the current recovery procedures. Consequently the Navy has determined that it needs to automate the RMMV recovery procedure. Advanced Optical Systems, Inc. proposes to continue development of the Advanced Vehicle Recovery System (AVRS). The AVRS makes minimal changes to the current LCS launch and recovery system, adding sensors and processors to the existing Twin-Boom Extendable Crane (TBEC) and its control system. During Phase I, AOS showed that the AVRS will speed up recovery by up to a factor of 15, increase the range of sea states in which recovery is possible, and reduce collisions between the RMMV and the recovery equipment to near-zero at sea states below 3.

Benefit:
Though the initial thrust of our rugged autonomous vehicle recovery system transition activities will focus on Navy surface, subsurface and air platforms, the availability of a safe recovery system will have significant interest in the oil, automotive, agriculture, and commercial aviation industries.

Keywords:
Remote Minehunting System (RMS), Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle (RMMV), Launch and Recovery (L&R), Mine countermeasures (MCM), Twin-Boom Extendable Crane (TBEC)