Trackless, Vacuum Secured Organic Offboard Vehicle Handling System

The Navy is rapidly committing to widespread use of unmanned vehicles to provide critical functions in support of fleet operations. These offboard organic vehicles (OOV) include air, surface and undersea-unmanned vehicles. Current systems for onboardhandling of these vehicles are labor intensive and require disparate pieces of equipment.KCI, working with Bath Iron Works, proposes to design and build a new OOV handling system that provides for movement of OOVs from stowage to launch area, and then automates returning it to stowage upon mission completion. The key to this system is amodular transporter system that is self-guiding and self-securing using vacuum technology. The transporter cart will be made from a combination of stainless steel and pultruded composite structural elements fabricated by KCI. We will draw heavily onexperience gained in the design and fabrication of a similar multifunctional computer-vision, vacuum secured system for the Air Force. In Phase I KCI will conceive and iterate various system alternatives, compare them with our baseline, and discuss thebest of the alternatives with the Navy. We will also develop test methods, fabricate test specimens and perform experimental studies to validate the performance of key components of the handling system. KCI's proposed solution for an OOV handling system makes use of an autonomous or semi-autonomous modular approach to ensure flexibility in meeting current and future OOV handling requirements at minimal cost, minimal ship impact and significantly reducedprogram risk. The successful demonstration and acceptance of autonomous vehicles with the capabilities proposed for this Naval SBIR application are generically applicable to a wide range of future military and civilian applications. For example, with thesame guidance technology, vehicles could be used to automate the delivery of critical supplies to troops operating in a hostile military environment. Commercial adaptations could be used to move warehoused items, reducing manpower needs associated withshipping and handling.