Modular Underwater Drone Assembles Like Lego
The US Navy has an interesting patent for an unmanned underwater vehicle (or UUV) platform that can be easily tailored to any mission. The UUV platform has components that fit together either mechanically or with magnets, and these components allow the user to create a mission-specific UUV.
Why is this important? Water is a tricky medium to move through. If a UUV has to go beyond a certain depth, it needs to be able to withstand considerable pressure. Thus, it needs structural reinforcement or be made from a heavier material. Thus, if this UUV is used for a surface mission, it would be sluggish due to the weight.
UUV operators need a warehouse of various UUVs for various purposes. In addition, UUVs are sophisticated machines, and are very expensive. As the patent says, “The mission specific nature of the designs also drives operator costs and limits operator mission flexibility. To perform a different mission other than the one originally intended requires the purchase of another vehicle designed for that purpose. Operators often purchase a quiver of expensive UUVs to ensure that there is at least one UUV on hand capable of meeting the current mission requirements.”
The invention proposes just a box full of parts that fit together. “The invention includes a UUV or autonomous vehicle of modular design. The modules can be assembled in the factory or in the field without special training or tools. Users can assemble the UUV or vehicle they want, when they need it. The modular design enables the vehicle to be assembled by the user to meet the user’s mission parameters and performance goals without the need to purchase individual, separate, mission-specific, vehicles for each operation. The modular design additionally enables operators to replace a failed component in the field.”
The list of parts is impressive: “command and control, propulsion, control surfaces, maneuvering thrusters, propellers, sensors, power or battery supply units, mass configuration, buoyancy control, legs and footings, ballast, attachment and grappling mechanisms, payload, communications, antennas, scuttle capability, navigation, and other mechanisms. Modules and elements can be combined together as desired to configure the vehicle as wished.”
The clever inventors say that “using magnets to attach modular components to the vehicle in this manner eliminates the hull penetrations necessary in prior art devices; and which can permit ingress of water or other contamination into the vehicle.”
Another variant of this invention is a parasitic UUV that is attached to another vessel with magnets, and can speed off when it is needed. Such vessels can be drilling platforms, military ships, or perhaps even buoys.
Claim 1: “A field configurable autonomous vehicle, comprising: a thermally conductive external heat sink; a thermally conductive interior heat sink thermally coupled to the external heat sink and wherein the thermally conductive interior heat sink is located in an interior volume of the vehicle, wherein the external heat sink does not contact the interior volume of the vehicle; and, a thermally conductive material disposed located between, and coupled to, the external heat sink and the interior heat sink, wherein the thermally conductive material comprises a metal mesh located within a hull wall of the vehicle.”
Title: “Supplemental Techniques For Vehicle And Module Thermal Management”
US Patent No: 11904993
Filed (US Prov.): 2019-09-12
Published: 2024-02-20
Applicant: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
