Earlier
Builds
Odyssey II | Odyssey I
| Sea Squirt
ODYSSEY
II
Creation
of a second-generation vehicle, Odyssey II, was supported
by the ONR. In the
spring of 1994, Odyssey II was deployed from an ice-camp in
the Beaufort Sea to explore Arctic sea-ice mechanics.
The Odyssey
II class of AUV, of which five have been built, is designed
to operate at full ocean depth. Less than two meters in length,
the vehicle does not require any special handling equipment
for launch and recovery. With a component cost of $75,000,
the vehicle has the potential for inexpensive mass-production.
The sub can be configured in a number of ways, depending on
mission requirements. It has an onboard computer which executes
navigation and control programs; each new mission profile
can be configured, tested and entered into the computer's
library. A sophisticated acoustic modem is used for reliable
two-way digital communication. A large portion of Odyssey's
internal volume is available for mission sensors.
ODYSSEY
I
This first
Odyssey AUV underwent field trials off of New England in 1992
and (deployed from the NSF icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer)
off of Antarctica in early 1993. The work on Odyssey was supported
by the Sea Grant College
Program, MIT, the National
Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Underwater
Research Program.
This 195-kg
(430 lbs.), 2.15-m-long, 0.59-diameter AUV is capable of operation
at depths of 6,000 m (3.7 miles). When first launched from
an oceanographic research vessel in January 1993 in the Antarctic,
Odyssey was one-sixth the weight of any other deep-diving
vehicle in the world and had twice the range of other vehicles.
With component costs of less than $50,000, Odyssey I's price
tag was a fraction of that for other deep-diving vehicles.
SEA
SQUIRT
Built
in 1988, the 35-kg, 1-m-long Sea Squirt was the first of the
AUV Lab's vehicles. With component costs of $40,000, it operated
inside a long-baseline array, taking measurements of oxygen
concentration, turbidity, temperature and salinity in the
Charles River, Boston Harbor and various lakes and ponds.
The vehicle also served as a testbed for software and instrumentation.
|
