Underwater vehicles for vessel characterization
OwnerJames Eric JACKSON, Jacqueline NICHOLS +1inventors
InventorsJames Eric JACKSON, Jacqueline NICHOLS, Adrian WOODROFFE
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Abstract
An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) comprising one or more propulsion devices that propel the AUV, one or more sensors that generate sensor data indicative of a signature of a vessel, memory, and processing circuitry. The processing circuitry determines an underwater position at which the AUV collects the sensor data, controls the one or more propulsion devices to move the AUV to the underwater position, receives the sensor data from the one or more sensors while the AUV is at the underwater position, and stores the sensor data in the memory.
Claims20
An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), comprising:
- one or more propulsion devices that propel the AUV;
- one or more sensors that generate sensor data indicative of a signature of a vessel;
- memory;
- and
- processing circuitry that:
- determines an underwater position at which the AUV collects the sensor data;
- controls the one or more propulsion devices to move the AUV to the underwater position;
- receives the sensor data from the one or more sensors while the AUV is at the underwater position;
- and
- stores the sensor data in the memory.
A method, comprising:
- determining, for a first autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), a first underwater position at which the first AUV collects first sensor data used to determine a first signature of a vessel;
- controlling the first AUV to move to the first underwater position;
- collecting the first sensor data while the first AUV is at the first underwater position;
- and
- storing the collected first sensor data in an onboard memory of the first AUV.
A system, comprising:
- a first group of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that collect first data indicative of a first signature of a vessel;
- a second group of AUVs that collect second data indicative of a second signature of the vessel, the second signature being different than the first signature;
- and
- a post-mission processor that:
- determines the first signature based on the first data;
- and
- determines the second signature based on the second data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.