Autonomous underwater vehicles with quiet fish-tail drive for underwater reconnaissance
We have been observing a dynamic growth of underwater robotics in the recent years. Autonomous biomimetic underwater vehicles (AUUV or BUV), mimicking the build and movements of living underwater organisms, such as fish, are one of the directions in these developments.
Such vehicles have properties important from the military point of view: such a drive is more energy-efficient and quieter than the conventional drive based on the screw propeller (based on initial research completed by the Naval Academy) and the whole vehicle is less visible (easier to conceal) in the aquatic environment, which can increase the operating range of the vehicle.
Project purposes:
The main goal of the project is to build heterogeneous autonomous underwater vehicles with quiet fish-tail drive for selected scenarios of underwater reconnaissance. New BUV designs will be based on experience learned during construction of the 5th version of BUV (the ‘cyber-fish’ of the Kraków University of Technology).
Implementation timeframe: 23/12/2013 – 30/04/2017
Amount of subsidy: PLN 3,434,400.00 (including for PIAP: PLN 585,639.47)
Project type: National research project
Consortium:
- FORKOS R&D Company
- Polish Naval Academy
- Kraków University of Technology
- Industrial Research Institute for Automation and Measurements PIAP
Project financed by the National R&D Centre as part of contest 4/2013 for implementation of R&D projects for defence and security.