Depth and hover control system for unmanned underwater vehicle
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorsHarold E. Fry, Arnold L. Peters
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an unmanned underwater instrumentation vehicle, travel to an assigned th and cyclical excursions between depth tolerances above and below that depth are effected by a mechanism that alternatively drops vernier weights by firing explosive release bolts and floods buoyancy chambers by firing explosive piercing cartridges.
Claims11
A hovering control system in combination with an underwater vehicle for causing said vehicle to seek a predetermined assigned depth and to hover about said depth, said system comprising:
- body means defining a plurality of normally closed, initially empty chambers, each adapted to be flooded by a predetermined volume of water;
- vernier weight means including at least one large weight member of first predetermined weight in water and a plurality of small weight members each of a second predetermined weight in water substantially equal to the weight of said predetermined volume of water;
- said vehicle and control system initially having a negative buoyancy substantially equal to said first predetermined weight in water of said large weight member whereby upon initial deployment of said vehicle it will begin to plummet;
- control means, responsive to predetermined depth conditions, for causing said weight members to be dropped and said chambers to be flooded in a sequence that will alternate said vehicle between positive and negative buoyancy states whereby said vehicle will hover by cyclical travel substantially between an upper tolerance depth and a lower tolerance depth.
In combination with an unmanned underwater instrumentation vehicle, a hovering control system for causing said vehicle to selectively operate in either a shallow hover mode about a predetermined shallow depth or a deep hover mode about a predetermined deep hover assigned depth, said system comprising:
- float means connected by tether means of predetermined length to said vehicle, said length to corresponding to said predetermined shallow depth;
- body means defining a plurality of normally closed, initially empty buoyancy chambers, each adapted to be flooded by a predetermined volume of water;
- vernier weight means including at least a first large weight member of first predetermined weight in water and a plurality of small weight members each of a second predetermined weight in water substantially equal to the weight of said predetermined volume of water;
- retainer means for releasably securing said weight members to said body means and actuable to selectively drop said weight members;
- flooding means actuable to open said chambers selectively for flooding by ambient water;
- said vehicle and float means having an initial negative buoyancy substantially equal to said weight in water of said large weight member will render said vehicle and float means substantially neutrally buoyant;
- deployment sensor means, responsive to deployment of the vehicle in a body of water, for generating a deployment signal;
- mode selector means conditionable to respond to provide shallow or deep hover enabling signals in response to said deployment signal;
- and
- programmer means, responsive to said enabling signals and to predetermined water pressure conditions, for effecting actuation of said retainer means and said flooding means so as to cause said vehicle to either rise to and hover about said shallow hover depth or to travel to and hover about said deep hover assigned depth.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.