Biologically Inspired Underwater Navigation Based on Geomagnetism

"Several ocean animals, including sea turtles, migratory fishes, and lobsters, have evolved accurate compasses for undersea navigation. Some have even evolved a way to move directly to specific geographic locations by exploiting distinctive features of theEarth's magnetic field. MTI, Ltd. in conjunction with the University of North Carolina's Lohmann Laboratory, will develop techniques to adapt these incredible innate navigation capabilities to Navy applications - specifically, to provide autonomousunderwater vehicles (AUVs) and divers with the ability to compensate for compass and displacement errors and to navigate to specific geographic locations without needing to surface to use the global positioning system (GPS). Phase I will investigate thenavigation systems of sea turtles and spiny lobsters, which are among the most sophisticated in the animal kingdom. From the insights gained, an approach to implementing a biologically inspired navigation technology will be developed using an innovativemagnetic sensing technology -- the giant magnetoimpedance (GMI) effect. The resulting navigation system will be small, low power, and low cost. It will provide a revolutionary undersea navigation capability for AUVs and divers, because it will be able toupdate its position or otherwise correct for displacements caused by compass error, currents, waves, etc., without surfacing. The small, energy efficient, affordable, innovative underwater navigation system proposed would be extremely useful for: a)seismic exploration by the offshore oil industry, b) locating pipelines, cables or wrecks, c) extended AUV and ROV operations, and d) commercial divers."