Automated Launch and Recovery of Small, Untethered Unmanned Underwater Vehicles from Unmanned Surface Vehicles

To meet mine-hunting mission requirements, Unmanned Surface Vehicles, USV, and various sensor systems (UUV's, AN/AQS-20, and others), may be combined for autonomous mine-hunting operations. Automated Unmanned Surface Vehicles face a significant challenge in the launch, the recovery, and the storage of UUV like systems. The USV will have to operate in various sea state and environmental conditions to meet mission requirements. At the same time, the USV must launch, handle, secure, and recharge the payload vehicles. The proposed automated launch and recovery concept consists of several major components: the USV master control scheme, the capture Drogue, the Winch/Boom system, the Handling and Storage system, and the mission UUV's. The proposed system will use the compact, underwater docking system being developed under a current Phase II SBIR. The on-board payload and mission capability will be determined via parametric studies of various USV sizes. The successful, automated recovery of a UUV while operating in a sea state, is the primary technical hurdle of the project. The concept that is proposed here will allow an increase factor of approximately eight fold for the time-on-station of a single autonomous mine-hunting UUV.