The ability to collect oceanic data quickly, accurately, and economically has a significant impact on the success of commercial, military, and maritime research operations. Requirements and applications for oceanic sensing vary significantly based on the type of information targeted in specific weather patterns, climate regions, and oceanic zones.

Read the Whitepaper: Addressing Sensing Capability Gaps Using Economical Profiling Technology

GhostSwimmer is a tactical, biomimetic autonomous biomimetic UUV that employs the mechanics and dynamics of biological fish to create high maneuverability and efficient swimming while remaining responsive to the needs of current covert, riverine, and littoral missions. GhostSwimmer provides quiet navigation through challenging and cluttered environments. It has undergone several series of sea tests and payload integration demonstrations and is now being updated with obstacle detection and avoidance. 

The Navy and other early adopters of large uncrewed surface vessels face challenges making them act, operate, and perform like their crewed counterparts due to nuances in seamanship, including anchoring. Nuanced activities related to anchoring can involve chart planning, interpreting seafloor conditions, communicating to vessel navigation systems/personnel, and monitoring for emergent situations. Boston Engineering developed the Automated Anchor Manager (AAM) for automated anchor planning and handling for uncrewed systems. AAM Software generates optimized anchoring locations and AAM Deck Hardware accurately tracks the amount of chain deployed and locks it in place. 

Oceanographic research and naval operations related thereto require persistence unachievable (with reasonable cost) by research vessels. The endless movement of currents, animal lifecycles and migrations, and subsurface terrain changes (seafloor, reefs, etc.) requires monitoring over long durations (perhaps even from months to decades). Some fielded instruments provide this data when they are attached to fixed platforms but are restricted to small sampling areas. Current mobile platforms that provide subsurface oceanographic sensing are expensive; unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and gliders cost 100’s of thousands of dollars. Dropsondes are passive and battery-operated suffer from limited station-keeping capability and endurance.

In Phase I, Boston Engineering developed a lightweight, long lasting, jellyfish-inspired float (MEDUSAE) with the possibility of self-recharging to fill this gap for the Navy. MEDUSAE, Boston Engineering rapidly conducted in-lab feasibility tests for different propulsion and actuations methods, including the use of artificial muscles.  Boston Engineering has leveraged its prior technology from its MASED dropsonde and its bio-inspired GhostSwimmer autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and leveraged a team of experts in biology, bio-inspired vehicles, oceanographic data collection, and subsea systems. We focused on the mechanics and robustness of swimming as well as the power system, communications, and oceanographic sensors.

UUVs (uncrewed underwater vehicles) are often limited in payload delivery. Boston Engineering developed a comprehensive project to model, test, and validate a payload detachment solution with efficient and reliable integration and deployment, combining proven technologies into an innovative but highly versatile solution for external UUV payload deployment, independent of payload shape and the desired location on, and the size/capability of, a given UUV. 

The US Navy requires on-demand acoustic sensing throughout the world’s oceans to identify, localize, and track, adversary submarines.  Boston Engineering developed HELIX to model, simulate, build, and test a novel, sonobuoy payload system (i.e., it’s carried by a sonobuoy) with a very high expansion ratio. This deployable structure, once expanded, is highly stable, resists bending, and is inherently torsion resistant for structural evaluation, acoustic analysis, and scaled testing. It provides an improved hydrophone array that maintains the current A-size Sonobuoy payload form factor to provide high value to the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) community. 

Boston Engineering designed, developed, tested, validated, and demonstrated a prototype “PilotFish” system, including a sensor array, tracking behavior algorithms, and spoofing algorithms and hardware. It showed the feasibility of exploiting rival UUV vulnerabilities by localizing, tracking, and then deceiving it. 

To provide Navy EOD operators standoff in dangerous and high-risk environments, Boston Engineering developed CONEXUS, an integration kit that provides 3,000 – 5,000 yards of standoff between expeditionary EOD teams and their ROVs used to interrogate mines. CONEXUS consists of a floating surface system, a station-keeping clump weight device, and interfaces for currently used ROVs. The floating surface system provides communications. The clump weight device adjusts tether lengths to the surface system and to connected ROVs, without impacting their specific use, CONOPs, or training requirements.