Hydronalix to develop gateway buoy for unmanned underwater vehicle control and communications
LAKEHURST, N.J. – U.S. Navy unmannedunderwater vehicle (UUV) experts needed a special buoy to house and control surveillance UUVs designed to determine the depth and underwater topography of rivers and inland waters. They found their solution from Hydronalix Inc. in Green Valley, Ariz.
Officials of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, N.J., announced plans Thursday to award an advanced research contract to Hydronalix to develop prototype mobile gateway buoys with integrated communications and control software. The amount of the upcoming contract was not disclosed.
These gateway buoys will be part of a Navy research project called Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for Sustained Riverine and Littoral Assessments, which is developing covert UUVs to explore rivers, harbors, and coastal waters for military surveillance.
A gateway buoy works together with a UUV to enable the operator to track, monitor, command, and interact with the UUV remotely while the unmanned submersible is underway. This helps maintain communications with the UUV, and share information with military forces who need it.
Hydronalix engineers will build an improved gateway buoy hull with hybrid electric and heavy-fuel propulsion, integrated with MK 18 gateway buoy communications equipment, and controlled by Neptune control software.
The company will build two gateway buoy prototypes integrated with control software and acoustic communication system. Engineers will design the buy such that as new communication technologies become available, they can integrate those systems into a common modular payload bay located on the buoy.
The AUV for Sustained Riverine and Littoral Assessments project is developing covert UUVs able to conduct surveys along rivers and streams while navigating under the vegetation canopy, causing the UUV's onboard global positioning system (GPS) to operate only intermittently.
Since 2010 this project has involved Hydronalix, as well as Ocean Server Technology Inc. in Fall River, Mass.; SeaLandAire Technologies Inc. in Jackson, Mich.; FarCo Technologies Inc. in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The project's first phase focused on developing UUV sensors, navigation, propulsion, control, hull, algorithms, and integrated system design. The second phase developed demonstration prototype UUV, and the third phase is developing an acquisition-ready river surveillance UUV.
Now Hydronalix will develop a gateway buoy to house, control, and distribute information from these UUVs. Future contract options may involve situational awareness sensor integration; vertical acoustic communication system integration; expendable data exfiltration embedded relay radio integration; and high frequency ground wave radio integration.
For more information contact Hydronalix online at https://hydronalix.com, or the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division-Lakehurst at www.navair.navy.mil.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
