KCF Technologies will design an intelligent, autonomous, lightweight, low-cost system for grooming Navy vessel hulls, utilizing KCFs existing Smart Tether shape sensing technology to determine the real-time shape of the grooming vehicles umbilical tether, and employing multiple auxiliary technologies to improve the accuracy of the tether positioning system. These technologies will include physical and video odometry for tracking distance traveled over the hull of the vehicle, as well as an automatic tether deployment and retraction system for controlling the amount of tether deployed. The tether deployment system will limit deployed tether to help avoid entanglements and excess drag on the vehicle, as well as providing a controlled operating envelope for the positioning technologies to work within. During Phase I, KCF and research partner Penn State will perform candidate sensor qualification and modeling to assemble the necessary hardware and software capabilities for autonomous hull navigation. During Phase II, KCF will engage with ROV manufacturing partner VideoRay LLC to build a working prototype autonomous hull-grooming system. Testing will be performed in a realistic field environment to confirm functionality. KCF is uniquely qualified for this topic due to its considerable experience in underwater navigation, ruggedized industrial device design, and ROV hardware integration.
Benefit: The proposed hull-grooming system will allow more regular and complete maintenance of Navy vessel hulls. This will have a variety of major benefits. Operational cost will be reduced due to improved fuel efficiency and reduced frequency of refueling. By reducing the frequency of refueling, there is a reduced chance of refueling in a hostile area, or exposing refueling craft to hostile situations. Staff demand will also be reduced, as there will not be a need for highly-skilled ROV operators and cleaning equipment operators to perform regular hull cleaning operations, since they will be carried out autonomously by the proposed system. The need to put divers in the water will also be greatly reduced, reducing a known safety risk. A solution that is physically small to accommodate easy overboard deployment will allow the possibility of sharing the asset between multiple vessels, expanding the scope of benefits from the purchase of a single system. The proposed system will have wide application in the commercial sector, for all of the same reasons it is appropriate for DoD applications. Improved efficiency, reduced maintenance staff demands, and improved safety are all attractive prospects for commercial vessels.
Keywords: data fusion, data fusion, Underwater Navigation, lCS, Smart Tether, non-acoustic positioning, Autonomous, DDG, ROV
