The AUSI/IMTP solar powered autonomous undersea vehicle

If we are to understand the impact of the world's oceans on our environment, we must gather data with which to understand that impact. Low cost, unmanned, long endurance mobile sampling systems are, in many cases, a desirable alternative to the currently used, oceanographic research vessels requiring large investments in manpower and equipment, or by buoyed instrument strings constrained to a fixed position. The Autonomous Undersea Systems Institute (AUSI) along with the Institute for Marine Technology Problems (IMTP) in Vladivostok has been investigating the characteristics and limitations of a solar energy system as an energy source for a long endurance AUV. The ultimate AUSI program objective is to develop a small, low cost, solar powered AUV system for the marine community with an endurance in excess of one year. A prototype solar powered AUV test bed has been developed. This prototype vehicle is being used to evaluate the results of a number of analyses related to the use of solar energy to power a long endurance data acquisition system. This paper presents the results of in-water tests of the solar AUV prototype and of the solar energy subsystems.