ROBOTIC

SUBMARINES

ABSTRACT

Today’s Navy is a blue-water force--its strengths are in the depths, not the shallows -- but it’s preparing for a brown-water fight.

The adaptations and inventions that

allow sailors to not only fight a battle,

but also live for months or even years

underwater are some of the most brilliant

developments in military history.

Not so long ago, a naval force worked

entirely above the water; with the

addition of the submarine to the standard

naval arsenal, the world below the

surface be “Studying the creatures at

these vents, and comparing them with

species at other vents around the world;

will help us to understand how animals

disperse and evolve in the deep ocean,”

said Jon Copley with the University of

Southampton.

INTRODUCTION

A submarine is a watercraft capable of

independent operation underwater. It

differs from a submersible, which has

more limited underwater capability. The

term submarine most commonly refers to

a large crewed autonomous vessel.

However, historically or colloquially,

submarine can also refer to medium-

sized or smaller vessels (midget

submarines, wet subs), remotely

operated vehicles or robots. The

adjective submarine in terms such

as submarine cable, means "under the

sea". The noun submarine evolved as a

shortened form of submarine boat (and

is often further shortened to sub).[citation

needed] For reasons of naval

tradition submarines are usually referred

to as "boats" rather than as "ships",

regardless of their size

Although experimental submarines had

been built before, submarine design took

off during the 19th century, and they

were adopted by several different navies.

Submarines were first widely used

during World War I (1914–1918) and

now figure in many large navies.

Military usage includes attacking enemy

surface ships or submarines, protection,

blockade running, ballistic missile

submarines as part of a nuclear strike

force, reconnaissance, conventional land

attack (for example using a cruise

missile), and covert insertion of special

forces. Civilian uses for submarines

include marine science, salvage,

exploration and facility

inspection/maintenance. Submarines can

also be modified to perform more

specialized functions such as search-and-

rescue missions or undersea cable repair.

Submarines are also used in tourism, and

for undersea archaeology.

Most large submarines consist of a

cylindrical body with hemispherical

(and/or conical) ends and a vertical

structure, usually located amidships,

which houses communications and

sensing devices as well as periscopes. In

modern submarines this structure is the

"sail" in American usage, and "fin" in

European usage.

A "conning tower" was a feature of

earlier designs: a separate pressure hull

above the main body of the boat that

allowed the use of shorter periscopes.

There is a propeller (or pump jet) at the

rear and various hydrodynamic control

fins as well as ballast tanks. Smaller,

deep diving and specialty submarines

may deviate significantly from this

traditional layout.

Submarines have one of the largest

ranges of capabilities in any vessel,

ranging from small autonomous

examples to one- or two-person vessels

operating for a few hours, to vessels

which can remain submerged for 6

months such as the Russian Typhoon

class - the biggest submarines ever built

and in use. Submarines can work at

greater depths than are survivable or

practical for human divers. Modern deep

diving submarines are derived from

the bathyscaphe, which in turn was an

evolution of the diving bell.

FIRST SUBMERSIBLES

The Drebbel, the first navigable submarine

The first submersible with reliable

information on its construction was built

in 1620 by Cornelius Drebbel,

a Dutchman in the service of James I of

England. It was created to the standards

of the design outlined by English

mathematician William Bourne. It was

propelled by means of oars. The precise

nature of the submarine type is a matter

of some controversy; some claim that it

was merely a bell towed by a boat. Two

improved types were tested in

the Thames between 1620 and 1624. In

2002 a two-person version of Bourne's

design was built for the BBC TV

programme Building the

Impossible by Mark Edwards, and

successfully rowed under water

at Dorney Lake, Eton.

Though the first submersible vehicles

were tools for exploring under water, it

did not take long for inventors to

recognize their military potential. The

strategic advantages of submarines were

set out by Bishop John

Wilkins of Chester, England,

in Mathematicall Magick in 1648:

1. This private: a man may thus go to

any coast in the world invisibly, without

discovery or prevented in his journey.

2. This safe, from the uncertainty of

Tides, and the violence of Tempests,

which do never move the sea above five

or six paces deep. From Pirates and

Robbers which do so infest other

voyages; from ice and great frost, which

do so much endanger the passages

towards the Poles.

3. It may be of great advantages against

a Navy of enemies, who by this may be

undermined in the water and blown up.

4. It may be of special use for the relief

of any place besieged by water, to

convey unto them invisible supplies; and

so likewise for the surprisal of any place

that is accessible by water.

5. It may be of unspeakable benefit for

submarine experiment

IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

The adjective submarine in terms such

as submarine cable, means "under the

sea". The noun submarine evolved as

The 1862 Alligator, first submarine of

the United States Navy. It was designed

by the French engineer, Brutus de

villeroi. During the American Civil war

both sides successfully built working

submarines. The Confederate States of

America submarines were all designed to

attack the Union blockade of Southern

ports. Two operational unnamed

Confederate submarines were spotted

during the latter half of 1861, one in

James River in Virginia and another in

New Orleans. The United States Navy

was first interested in submarines as a

way to clear obstacles. Interest in attack

submarines began at least by May 1861,

when French engineer Brutus de villeroi

tested an early submarine design in

Philadelphia harbor in what may have

been an effort to attract the Navy’s

attention. Most Confederate submarines

were built under the auspices of the

Confederate Secret Service rather than

the Confederate Navy, with only three

being well known and documented.

Others, both Confederate and Union, are

known to have existed but their names

and designs have escaped the historical

record. In all, evidence indicates that a

combined total of over twenty

operational submarines were built by

both sides during the conflict.

UNMANNED SUBMARINES

One of the first unmanned deep sea

vehicles was developed by the

University of California with a grant

from the Alan Hancock Foundation in

the early 1950s to develop a more

economical method of taking photos

miles under the sea with an unmanned

steel high pressure 3,000lb sphere called

a benthograph which contained a camera

and strobe light. The original

benthograph built by USC was very

successful in taking a series of

underwater photos till it became wedged

between some rocks and could not be

retrieved.

ROVs, or Remote Operated Vehicles,

are seeing increasing use in underwater

exploration. These submersibles are

piloted through a cable which connects

to the surface ship, and they can reach

depths of up to 6,000 meters. New

developments in robotics have also led to

the creation of AUVs, or Autonomous

Underwater Vehicles. The robotic

submarines are programmed in advance,

and receive no instruction from the

surface. HROV combine features of both

ROVs and AUV, operating

independently or with a cable Argo was

employed in 1985 to locate the wreck of

the RMS Titanic; the smaller Jason was

also used to explore the ship wreck.

According to the BBC, UK’s newest

autonomous underwater vehicle known

as Autosub6000 is on its way to explore

the deepest undersea volcanoes in the

Caribbean. The robotic submarine can

dive as far as 6000 meters and it will be

complemented by the remote controlled

submarine Isis. The robots will explore

the volcanoes all along the Cayman

Trough with Autosub6000 going first to

locate the volcanic vents at the bottom of

the ocean and Isis going second to

collect samples around the vents. The

two submarines will help scientists learn

more about life in the deep ocean; the

team on board the vessel James Cook

which will be heading to the Cayman

Trough expects to find many new

species during the expeditions. Robots

are helping us explore so much of nature

we could never hope to explore

ourselves in the near future. Several

robots are currently studying the surface

of Mars looking for water and traces of

past or current life while these two

submarines will help us understand life

on our planet. The Lunar X-Prize is

determined to prove that robotic

missions to the Moon can be both cheap

and an effective method for scientific

research (not that the latter has not been

proved already by NASA’s planetary

rovers but those were definitely not

cheap.) Scientific applications for

robotics are by far the most valuable and

worthwhile of all robotics endeavors

undertaken today.

SENSORS

Nearly all underwater vehicles and

surface ships today use sonar and vision

for imaging and navigation. However,

sonar and vision systems face various

limitations, e.g., sonar blind zones, dark

or murky environments, etc. Evolved

over millions of years, fish use the lateral

line, a distributed linear array of flow

sensing organs, for underwater

hydrodynamic imaging and information

extraction. We demonstrate here a proof-

of-concept artificial lateral line system. It

enables a distant touch hydrodynamic

imaging capability to critically augment

sonar and vision systems. We show that

the artificial lateral line can successfully

perform dipole source localization and

hydrodynamic wake detection. The

development of the artificial lateral line

is aimed at fundamentally enhancing

human ability to detect, navigate, and

survive in the underwater environment.

A submarine will have a variety of

sensors determined by its missions.

Modern military submarines rely almost

entirely on a suite of passive and active

sonars to find their prey. Active sonar

relies on an audible “ping” to generate

echoes to reveal objects around the

submarine. Active systems are rarely

used, as doing so reveals the sub’s

presence. Passive sonar is a set of

sensitive hydrophones set into the hull or

trailed in a towed array, generally

several hundred feet long. The towed

array is the mainstay of NATO

submarine detection systems, as it

reduces the flow noise heard by

operators. Hull mounted sonar is

employed to back up the towed array,

and in confined waters where a towed

array could be fouled by obstacles.

Submarines also carry radar equipment

for detection of surface ships and

aircraft. Sub captains are more likely to

use radar detection gear rather than

active radar to detect targets, as radar can

be detected far beyond its own return

range, revealing the submarine.

Periscopes are rarely used, except for

position fixes and to verify a contact’s

identity. Civilian submarines, such as the

DSV Alvin or the Russian Mir

submersibles, rely on small active sonar

sets and viewing ports to navigate.

Sunlight does not penetrate below about

300 feet (91m) underwater, so high

intensity lights are used to illuminate the

viewing area.

SUBMARINE STEMS TANKER'S OIL LEAKS A submarine repairing the sunken

prestige oil tanker has finished its work –

its operators claim they have stemmed

99 per cent of the leaking. The tanker

was patched where it lies, on the floor of

the Atlantic, 3.5 kilometers below the

surface. It was damaged in November by

severe weather off the north-west coast

of Spain and was towed 200 kilometers

out to sea, where it sank. Oil has already

polluted hundreds of kilometers of the

Spanish coastline.

The Nautile submarine, owned by the

French Research Institute for

Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER).

Bruno Barnouin, a spokesman for

IFREMER, told New Scientist the

repairs ought to reduce the amount of oil

leaking from the ship’s hull to less than

one tonne per day. The original rate was

estimated to be more than 100 tonnes per

day. He says the Spanish government,

who funded the work, will now inspect

the repairs.

Metal shot

The Nautile performed its first dive on

16 December. The submarine’s crew

used the submarine’s robotic arms to

patch about 20 different leaks in the

Prestige’s hull. The challenges posed by

the leaks varied, so a number of different

repair techniques were used. One

solution involved placing metal plugs

over ruptures and securing these using

weighted bags. In another, a bag of metal

shot was inserted into a tube leaking oil.

Barnouin says the patches may last up to

40 years, but admits they could

deteriorate much more quickly.

Pumped up

“It’s a step in the right direction,” says

Simon Cripps, director of the World

Wildlife Fund’s International Marine

Programme, but even a tonne a day is a

serious ecological problem, he says.

Cripps adds that the Spanish government

should find a way to retrieve the

remaining oil from the prestige as

quickly as possible. “It’s the only

solution,” he told New Scientist.

Between 17,000 and 20,000 tonnes of oil

is thought to have leaked from the tanker

so far, leaving about 60,000 tonnes of oil

still on board. Much of the leaked oil has

washed up on the north-west coast of

Spain, severely damaging the local

fishing industry and wildlife. Some oil

has reached the Atlantic coast of France.

The Spanish government is currently

considering a proposal by the Dutch

salvage.

Remote controlled robot to help solve the mystery of Earth’s missing crust A 12-member team of British scientists

are on the way to the middle of the

Atlantic Ocean in an effort to answer the

questions around Earth’s missing crust

deep in the bottom of the ocean.

According to CNN, the hole is about

16,400 feet under the surface of the

Atlantic and located half way between

Tenerife and Barbados. It has a diameter

of 10,000 to 13,000 feet. The team will

use a remote controlled underwater

vehicle to try and recover samples from

what should be the Earth’s exposed

mantle; mantle is the material that is

found under the Earth’s crust but cannot

be reached normally.

Because of the extreme depth, a manned

submarine mission is not possible. As a

result, the team will use an autonomous

underwater vehicle that is essential a

remotely controlled robot with enough

on-board decision making to make the

operator’s job easier. The robot will land

at the bottom of the crater and drill into

the mantle in order to return rock

samples back to the ship. In addition, the

robot will use its on-board mapping

instruments to create a 3D map of the

ocean’s floor.

AUVs in Navy

Seventy-four percent of Persian Gulf

waters are shallower than 180 feet. And

in what the Navy terms very shallow

water – from about 40 feet to the 10-foot

depths where waves begin to break –

mines pose an especially acute threat.

There, where ships and manned subs

can’t venture, the Navy traditionally

relies on dolphins to find and mark

mines, and on human divers to set

charges nearby, then swim away before

they explode. The work is painstakingly

slow and dangerous. That’s why military

planners would love to send in a team of

AUVs instead. The AUVs in the Navy

Seals’ tests are programmed before

being dropped into the water. Each

vehicle dedicates itself to a discrete

portion of the harbor, covering it in a

series of parallel runs -- a tactic called

“mowing the grass.” Scanning 150 feet

in each direction with sonar, the robot

subs note the location of all mine-like

objects. To keep their bearings, they

continually send signals to two

transponders that the Seals have dropped

in the water at predetermined locations.

(The subs are programmed to know

where the transponders are, so by

assessing how long it takes for their

signals to bounce back, they ascertain

their own location.) After a few hours,

when the robot subs have covered the

entire harbor, they gather at an appointed

place to be retrieved.

Underwater satellites and autonomous

robots help the hunt for enemy submarines

Additionally, the lethality of these Submarines may sound like a bit of an old school Hunt for Red October style threat, but Anti-Submarine Warfare planning is still vital.

Diesel-electric submarines are a growing threat for four primary reasons. They can be built a relatively low cost in comparison to traditional platforms and have therefore proliferated in numbers- arguably in numbers that exceed our maritime platforms.

Diesel electric subs have also grown while their acoustic signatures are lower making them harder to detect.

SATELLITES IN THE OCEAN - DASH

DARPA’s Distributed Agile Submarine Hunting or DASH program will detect and locate submarines over vast areas in both deep and shallow water.

DASH is a sort of an underwater version of a satellite capable of operating at extreme depths in Open Ocean. Known as “subullites,” these are being developed for deployment on deep sea enemy sub stake outs.

The underwater satellites will be mobile, quiet and unmanned.

Just like a satellite in the sky, it will have a large field of view- but in this case of the water overhead so that it can scan

upwards and from great depths detect the quiet diesel electric subs.

To hunt submarines in the shallower continental shelf waters, state of the art mobile sensors will hunt from above rather than from below the threat. For this area, non-acoustic sensing will be deployed.

Conclusion AUVs have been used for a limited

number of tasks dictated by the

technology available. With the

development of more advanced

processing capabilities and high yield

power supplies, AUVs are now being

used for more and more tasks with roles

and missions constantly evolving.

A typical military mission for an AUV is

to map an area to determine if there are

any mines, or to monitor a protected area

(such as a harbor) for new unidentified

objects. AUVs are also employed in anti-

submarine warfare, to aid in the

detection of manned submarines.

Scientists use AUVs to study lakes, the

ocean, and the ocean floor. A variety of

sensors can be affixed to AUVs to

measure the concentration of various

elements or compounds, the absorption

or reflection of light, and the presence of

microscopic life. Additionally, AUVs

can be configured as tow-vehicles to

deliver customized sensor packages to

specific locations.