S. Desset

MIT Sea Grant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

S. Desset is a pioneering roboticist whose work has fundamentally advanced autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) technology, particularly for maritime security and infrastructure inspection. His primary research areas encompass hull-relative navigation, hover-capable AUV design, and autonomous ship hull inspection systems. Desset’s most impactful contribution, detailed in his highly cited 2005 paper (50 citations), describes the development of the Hovering Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (HAUV) at MIT in collaboration with Bluefin Robotics. This work introduced a revolutionary hull-relative navigation and control system that uses a Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) kept normal to the hull, enabling the vehicle to perform detailed, autonomous inspections of complex ship structures—a critical capability for anti-terrorism and force protection. Building on this, his 2006 paper (9 citations) presented a new paradigm for ship hull inspection using a holonomic, hover-capable robot, effectively bridging the gap between traditional AUV and remotely operated vehicle capabilities. Desset’s work has been instrumental in transitioning ship hull inspection from manual, diver-based operations to autonomous, robotic systems, significantly enhancing both safety and efficiency in naval and commercial maritime security.