Legged Vehicle for Underwater Mobile Operations

RedZone proposes to study the unique requirements for near-shore navigation and apply these requirements to several candidate walking concepts and distill them into a single mechanism. The objective of this SBIR is "to develop a prototype small legged vehicle capable of stable locomotion underwater for purposes of performing tasks in near-shore oceanic environments." In order to fulfill the military applications, the system will need to be designed to be low-observable, self-navigating and self-powering. The significant challenges to achieving this goal include a unique locomotion mechanism. Telemetry, control and power. Phase I will concentrate on the mechanism and the ambulation control algorithms capable of navigating sandy bottoms with small "bowling ball" sized rocks. One of the most successful applications in remote technology has been ROVs. They have been used in many applications from underwater surveillance to off-shore oil platform servicing. However, shallow environments of 100 feet and shallower are challenging for ROVs due to the various currents (in particular surges, up wells and riptides). Therefore, a machine that can walk on the bottom can handle tasks too challenging for ROVs.