Development of a Towed Underwater Platform That Can Operate in a Marine Environment and Explore the Sea Bottom

Owing to environmental constraints, it is challenging to stably conduct various missions or surveys of the seabed for a prolonged period in the marine environment. To address this challenge, several devices and technologies are being developed. In this study, we aimed to develop an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV)—specifically, a towed underwater platform—that can be loaded and unloaded via joint operation with an unmanned surface vehicle, which can be connected to a wired cable to obtain a stable power supply and high-speed communication. In addition, various sensors for detection are employed to investigate the marine environment and conduct missions. Furthermore, we operated the developed UUV in actual waters, reviewed the results, and examined its practical operability.

Integrating UUVs for naval applications

Underwater surveillance technology was an advent of the Cold War. This technology saw numerous advancements only once the technology was declassified and pursued by academia. One such advancement in the maritime domain was the development of the Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) that has the ability to enhance war-fighting capabilities while de-risking human life. Though this technology has since been commercialised, it has found limited takers in the Navy. The limited inroad it has made has been driven primarily by the developers and the governments that fund them. However, since this technology offers numerous benefits to the military it needs to be integrated into the Navy sooner than later. This essentially means that to achieve greater acceptance for naval use/ applications, integrating this technology into the Navy is essential. This in return requires numerous queries to be answered and facts understood to create greater confidence in the technology and its potential. Accordingly, some of these queries that can help address the knowledge gaps to facilitate future acceptance and induction of the UUV technology into the Navy are discussed. Though an attempt to provide comprehensive answers has been made, these answers are not considered complete but only a start point for a debate. As it stands, the technology exists; however, it is a lack of imagination that is disallowing its usage.

Application Status and Research Progress of Resin Matrix Composites in Unmanned Underwater Vehicle

Unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) is a kind of underwater unmanned vehicle. In recent years, it has been widely used in civil and military fields. With the development of the unmanned underwater vehicle to multi-function, strong concealment, high performance and other directions, different kinds of resin matrix composite materials with excellent sound absorption, corrosion resistance, high specific strength characteristics, the utilization rate of unmanned underwater vehicle gradually increased and has broad development potential. In this paper, the application status and key technologies of resin-matrix composites in the field of unmanned aerial vehicle (UUV) are studied from two aspects of function and structure, and the technical trend of resin-matrix composites in the future UUV is described, and its development prospect is forecasted.