The Bluefin 21-inch UUV, Bluefin Robotics

MIT LAMSS owns and operates two state-of-the-art Bluefin'21 autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), as well as support equipment for their operation, including an acoustic communication bouy, and a Sonadyne long baseline navigation system. The laboratory is operating the AUV typically from research vessels, and have been deployed and operated on average once a year during major field experiments.

Through joint research agreements with the NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) in La Spezia, Italy, the Laboratory has regular access to their two research vessels, and their engineering research staff. The Laboratory operates several payloads for the AUV, including three acoustic sensing payloads for oceanographic mapping, bottom and sub-bottom object detection. The most recent payload addition is a 32-element towed hydrophone array, purchased under an ONR DURIP grant. It is used extensively for development of autonomous behaviors for environmentally adaptive underwater acoustic sensing for undersea surveillance and environmental monitoring, and for underwater acoustic research in general.


Projects:

  • ICEX'16 (ONR)
  • GOATS (ONR)
  • Deep Sea Operations (DARPA)