Review of Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (AUV) Developments 
Table 6. Phoenix Specifications 
Length 7 feet 
Breadth 1.5 feet 
Displacement approximately 450 Ibs 
Top Speed knots 
Maneuvering 0 - 3 knots, Phoenix has vertical and horizontal cross-body thrusters, enabling it to hover. 
Depth Used for shallow-water application in depths less than 30 feet 
Mission 3 hrs using lead-acid batteries 
Duration 
Propulsion twin screw, one 1/4 hp brushless DC motor on each shaft 
PC-104 board with a pentium node running QNX. 
There is an ethernet module for network communications between internal vehicle processors 
and external computers. This is accomplished by either an Ethernet & Starlan Data Link or by a 
900-MHz radio modem. 
Vehicle Control GESPAC Computer System running OS-9 real-time operating system 
- magnetic compass 
Navigation - Precision Nav 
- INS 
- Sistron and Donner motion package 
- Depth Cell, Psi-Tronix Inc., model S11-131 
- DiveTracker, a short baseline acoustic positioning system by Desert Star Systems. 
- Scanning Sonar 
- Profiling Sonar 
- Doppler 
- Altimeter 
- ADCP 
Employment Phoenix is an experimental vehicle used for proof of concept. 
Vehicle may be deployed at any boat landing via trailer and is also capable of being lifted and 
launched from a pier or boat. 
System Control 
Sensors 
Deployment 
The AUV Center at NAVPGSCOL began in 1987 with the joining of interested faculty from the 
Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer 
Engineering. Instrumental in its formation was the Navy's interest in such vehicles for 
clandestine mine countermeasures work. While that is still of great interest to the Navy, other 
applications to Ocean Science and commercial usage for monitoring and surveillance have 
grown. The Center is focused on the development of advanced control methodologies for using 
this type of vehicle in very shallow waters, where persistent wave and current action from the 
seaway make operations difficult. 
The AUV Center has been funded for several projects by the National Science Foundation and 
ONR, and works collaboratively with the Florida Atlantic University. Other related work using 
multiple small robotic land vehicles for minefield clearance and missions clearing unexploded 
ordnance (UXO) has been funded by the Naval Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) Technical 
Division (Indian Head). 
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