Affordable Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) Power System Architecture

The primary objective of the proposed work is to develop an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) power system architecture that is simultaneously scalable to multiple UUV sizes, light weight, affordable, and adaptable. This will be accomplished through the development of “smart” power units (SPU’s) that can be readily interconnected to provide distributed and coordinated power management for the UUV while providing battery cell balancing and charge monitoring. The SPU’s will contain integrated power converter/controllers capable of providing for the vehicle hotel and propulsion loads, and compatible with multiple battery chemistries through the use of an automatic identification scheme. The SPU’s will facilitate universal charging through a standard interface port, be modular enough to be deployed in a wide range of UUV sizes and dimensions, and be capable of communicating both with other SPU’s and with the user using standard communication protocols. Deployment of the proposed SPU’s will be greatly enhanced by accompanying software capable of rapidly sizing and configuring the modules for a given UUV size while minimizing size and weight.