Unmanned Systems Technology 013 | AutonomouStuff Lincoln MKZ | AI systems | Unmanned Underwater Vehicles | Cosworth AG2 UAV twin | AceCore Neo | Maintenance | IDEX 2017 Show report

46 Insight | UUVs correct for adverse currents. Sensing and analysing environmental information has enabled the processing to extract key information when hunting mines in complex areas. Further improvements include the ability to assess data quality in real time, adapt track spacing to optimise the sensor coverage and to re-acquire multiple views of detected targets autonomously. Finally, task arbitration and machine decision-making enable de- confliction among groups of AUVs. Combined with frequent reconfigurations and upgrades, these capabilities demand a lot from the computers in terms of data storage, processing power and flexibility. Despite its low level of technology readiness, the Muscle is regularly used in operational MCM scenarios in which quick turnaround from mission execution to post-mission analysis is essential, so it has recently been fitted with a new field- swappable underwater data storage unit based on PicoITX single-board computers from Italy’s SECO. These enable the unit to run independently of other vehicle subsystems, retrieving and storing mission data unsupervised, and promise to cut the downtime required for data transfer from hours to minutes, enabling multiple missions each day. Anti-submarine warfare The US Navy is to deploy buoyancy- driven gliders from its destroyers to provide more accurate and up-to-date oceanographic data with which to calibrate its sonars, to gain an edge in detecting and localising submarines, according to Oceanographer of the Navy, Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, who made the announcement during an AUVSI conference in Washington DC last October. The Littoral Battlespace Sensing Gliders, built by Teledyne Brown Engineering, carry a suite of sensors including devices to measure water conductivity, temperature and depth – parameters that together determine the speed of sound through the water. From that information, acoustic processing systems generate sound speed profiles that are vital for calculating sonar performance under the prevailing conditions, in turn making calculated target ranges more accurate. The gliders can provide regular updates to the sound speed profiles over long periods, meaning that the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) force’s acoustic processing systems have more accurate environmental information with which to work. The US Navy has more than 100 gliders, but until now the only ships that have regularly operated them have been its six oceanographic survey vessels, so the destroyers provide extra platforms for putting more gliders into the water along with the added benefit of being in the area in which they are conducting their ASW missions. Gliders were also used in this way during the Unmanned Warrior exercise around the British coast last October, as was Saab’s AUV62-AT ASW training target. Designed for launch from a surface ship, a submarine or a shore station, the AUV62-AT can help train operators in the full spectrum of ASW operations, from surveillance, detection, classification and identification to weapons engagement. The vehicle is 0.53 m in diameter, so it can be launched from most submarine torpedo tubes, and is 4 to 6.5 m long, depending on how far its tail has been extended; it weighs about 620 kg. It has an operating speed range of 0-12 knots, and its battery power enables it to run at 12 knots for more than three hours, 8 knots for more than ten hours or for more than 24 hours at 4 knots, and it can operate as deep as 300 m. It features a suite of transducers in the hull and the tail that enables it to mimic the acoustic signatures of various submarines, while recording sounds made by ASW forces, analysing their use of active sonars and torpedoes, for example. The AUV62-AT package also includes a launch and recovery system, and a mission planning suite that enables a coordinator to plan exercises, as well as a portable computer that records and analyses mission data for immediate after-action reviews. As part of a defence collaboration agreement between Sweden and the US in June 2016, the two countries will work more closely together on r&d aimed at improving their underwater warfare capabilities. Saab envisages the AUV62- AT being used in joint training exercises, in particular at the US Navy’s new Undersea Warfare Development Center April/May 2017 | Unmanned Systems Technology The AUV62-AT represents a new generation of autonomous vehicles that serve as submarine surrogates, mimicking their signatures and movements to train ASW operators (Courtesy of Saab)