PROGRAM OBJECTIVES 



The purpose of the free- swimming vehicle development effort described in 

 this report is to use new technological advances in solid-state electronics 

 and microprocessor technology to accomplish the following: 



1. Investigate the use of supervisory-controlled and autonomously con- 

 trolled unmanned submersibles for undersea pipeline and structure 

 inspection. 



2. Test and demonstrate advanced concepts in underwater submersible de- 

 sign on an actual underwater platform. 



NOSC is interested both in transferring its technology to the underwater 

 offshore oil community and in developing undersea, unmanned vehicle technology 

 for use in Navy applications. The effort described herein was performed under 

 the sponsorship of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). An overview of the 

 general objectives of the USGS-funded, Free-Swimming Vehicle Technology Devel- 

 opment Program is shown in figure 2 and described in detail in reference 6. 

 Results of studies in the indicated technological areas (figure 2) are for- 

 warded to the concept evaluation and demonstration program, the output of 

 which feeds into a data bank which is made available to the offshore commun- 

 ity. The development of the testbed described in this report represents only 

 one of the required technologies. However, the testbed will be one of the 

 major platforms used to demonstrate and test other technological concepts. 



The NOSC-designed vehicle testbed has been named EAVE WEST to distinguish 

 it from the EAVE EAST vehicle platform being simultaneously pursued by the 

 University of New Hampshire under the same program sponsorship (see reference 

 7). (EAVE is an acronym standing for Experimental Autonomous Vehicle.) The 

 EAVE WEST design demonstrates a platform capable of taking full advantage of 

 the higher speed capabilities of the untethered, unmanned submersible concept. 

 EAVE EAST is designed to demonstrate the greater freedom and maneuverability 

 possible with the untethered concept. (A diagram of the NOSC free-swimming 

 submersible is in the appendix.) 



