SAUV II
Solar-powered Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
- Renewable solar power for payload, propulsion, and communications
- Large user-payload capability
- Operates on surface or dives to 500m
- Longer endurance than standard AUVs
- More payload capacity than gliders
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FSI's Solar AUV (SAUV II) is a solar-powered autonomous underwater vehicle providing extended mission endurance on the surface or at depths up to 500 meters. On-board rechargeable lithium-ion batteries provide maximum mission endurance even under conditions where minimal solar radiation is available.
The SAUV is designed as a multi-mission platform to allow payload configuration by the end-user to optimize the SAUV for coastal/harbor monitoring, data portal (to moored sub-surface instruments) applications, or any other application where long-term deployment is required.
The SAUV is designed to reside on the surface while recharging batteries and then to execute its programmed mission. While on the surface the SAUV is designed to communicate via Iridium satellite or RF communications link to upload collected data and to allow reprogramming of mission profiles. A bi-directional acoustic link provides for data acquisition from sub-sea instrumentation.
(Download Product Brochure)
(Download White Paper)
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Why choose the SAUV?
- Traditional
AUVs offer mission durations ranging from hours to days. They are
largely limited by on-board battery power and hotel load.
- Gliders
offer an alternative platform, with effectively infinite mission
duration, but limited directivity. While buoyancy-driven motion offers
long-duration missions, sensor duration is still limited to hotel power,
and maneuverability is limited - the vehicle can get down, but it can’t
stay down.
- Hybrid wave-propelled systems are attractive for
long-term deployments, but these systems are limited to surface
operation and may require significant wave action for propulsion. Solar
panels and lithium ion batteries may provide additional power for
payload operation, but this is typically limited.
With its square
meter of solar panels and 500-meter depth capability, the SAUV II
provides the most flexible combination of power, endurance, and
mission-configurability. It can collect from 300 to 900 Watt-hours per
day and carries 2.4KWhr on-board batteries. At full charge, the system
would provide approximately 1900 WHrs of energy available (assumes 20%
reserve.
One possible mission scenario might involve traveling 3
miles @ 2 knots, which would use 41 W. Assuming a hotel load of 10W, the
resulting energy use would be 51W continuous over 1.5 hours, for a
total consumption of 76.5 Whrs, leaving plenty of energy for both
station keeping and data transmission once at the surface. If extended
high-energy-use missions are required, multiple SAUV’s have been
configured to operate in a role switching mode allowing multiple
vehicles to communicate and carry out the mission based on the status
reported by each SAUV.
The SAUV II can dive under its own power to
depths of up to 500 meters, then remain there and execute a mission,
such as mapping, imaging or chemical sampling. The SAUV II can also
remain on the surface, either station-keeping independent of sea-state
conditions, or navigating to access objectives or avoid exposure. The
SAUV II is self-propelled, controlled by a single vectored thruster and
responsive to changing mission instructions, via an existing embedded
Iridium satellite phone link and mission controller software.
Please Contact FSI to discuss your specific needs.
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