Autonomous operation of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robotic Work Package using the CETUS untethered underwater vehicle

Abstract

This paper describes the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robotic Work Package's mission management, navigation and control capabilities, on-vehicle sensor signal processing adapted to the mission specific Reson 6012 "SeaBat" electronically scanned sonar, the autonomous Composite Endoskeletal Testbed UUV System (CETUS), and the modifications that were required to integrate them into a system for shallow water (<200 m) search, visit, and return. New developments including the incorporation of low-rate acoustic command and telemetry communications which supports a supervisory approach to the interaction with the MIRA intelligent controller are described as is the capability to transmit classification and image information of sensed subsea objects. The effectiveness of the system in the accomplishment of limited area search and detailed object inspection is described in terms of the current implementation of the Robotic Work Package and the projected capabilities of CETUS.