WASHINGTON DC (3 July 2003) -- Now here was an awesome alliance: in March, when supply and hospital ships were on their way into Iraq's port of Umm Qasr, and the sea channels had to be cleared of the mines the Iraqis had planted, a group of Marine Corps reconnaissance swimmers, Navy SEALS, Explosive Ordnance divers, dolphins, and underwater drones joined forces. Men and dolphins had worked together before, but this was the first time the unmanned underwater vehicle REMUS was teamed with them in a wartime situation. REMUS (which stands for Remote Environmental Monitoring UnitS) was originally developed to conduct coastal surveys in support of science, and then later improved for military use with support from the Office of Naval Research and the U.S. Special Operations Command. Today, REMUS not only performs rapid environmental surveys, it also functions as an underwater mine reconnaissance tool that operates effectively in shallow water. In Iraq, REMUS was sent out to perform wide area surveys. The dolphins then swam out to inspect potential targets located by REMUS, and the Navy and Marine Corps followed up to perform demolition tasks. REMUS is small and light enough (80 lbs) for two men to handle, and can travel up to 60 miles at speeds between 3-5 knots at depths up to 300 feet. It is programmed using a laptop computer, and can employ sound-emitting transponders as navigational reference beacons, or its onboard computer can autonomously select another more appropriate navigation method to use. Once launched, REMUS carries out its programmed assignment, and then makes its way back to the ship for recovery with the data it has collected. Off Umm Qasr, REMUS was sent out with its side-scan sonar to systematically survey the port channel waters that were seeded with mines. Once the sonar images were processed, dolphins were sent in to inspect potential targets, and report back on what they'd found. In the end, several mines were tagged and destroyed, thanks to the REMUS/dolphin/diver teams, and this allowed coalition forces to bring in nearly 250 tons of badly needed food and materials. "The hard sandy bottom at Umm Qasr was perfect for REMUS, and it was sent out first to do the tedious work of 'mowing the waters.' REMUS works for up to 20 hours without tiring, so it performs well at surveying large areas and locating potential targets. Dolphins, on the other hand, have the intelligence to differentiate between natural and man made objects, so they are our best tool for reacquisition tasks," notes Christopher von Alt, leader of the WHOI engineering team that developed REMUS for the Navy. "When these two are combined with scuba diver support, they form the awesome team that was envisioned by ONR over a decade ago." "ONR has long been interested in the development of unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs)," notes ONR science officer, Tom Swean. | | "We use them to do pure oceanographic science, and to survey waters before amphibious naval operations are conducted. REMUS works until its batteries need recharging and is many times faster than the human scuba diving teams." The dolphins are trained and handled by the Navy in San Diego, CA. REMUS is now a commercial product available from Hydroid, Inc, of East Falmouth, MA. The next generation REMUS will be a system consisting of three drones that work cooperatively for mine countermeasures in shallow water. SOURCE - Office of Naval ResearchREMUS - Remote Environmental Monitoring Unit System | The Remote Environmental Monitoring Unit System (REMUS) was developed by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) under ONR support. The REMUS vehicle is an unmanned underwater vehicle that performs reconnaissance (hydrographic and side-scan sonar surveys) in littoral waters, from the seaward edge of the surf zone into waters as deep as 100 meters. The vehicle is small, capable of deployment by two people, simple to program, and can be launched and recovered from a small vessel without a crane or other special handling equipment. REMUS can operate over 20 hours on battery power before recharging and is capable of speeds over 2.5 meters per second. The primary navigation is by localization relative to long base line transponders. Navigation is additionally supported by an ultra short base line system, Doppler velocity log, and compass. In addition to searching and detecting mine-like objects, system products from reconnaissance missions include water current velocity, seafloor bathymetry, water temperature and salinity, and optical properties of the water. Current technology developments include autonomous long baseline (LBL) deployment, payload delivery, integrated multi-user navigation/acoustic communication, computer aided detection/computer aided classification (CAD/CAC) and advanced forward-looking sonar (FLS) - Dimension: Length 63" (160 cm), Width 7.5" (19 cm), Weight 80lbs. (36.5 kg)
- Speed: capable of speeds over 2.5 meters per second
- Depth: 100 meters
- Endurance: 20 hours
- Payload: Vehicle size can be increased to house large payloads through the use of extender sections
- Launch & Recovery: deployment by 2 people - launched and recovered by a small vessel without a crane
- Power Plant: Battery powered
|
|
|
