Soft Extending Autonomous Robot for Clearing Hazards (SEARCH)

The Navy currently detects and neutralizes undersea mines using a combination of platforms that rely on sonar, laser and optical searching methods. The process is effective at detecting individual mines suspended in the water column and lightly buried in the seabed; however, it is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and can be impractical to implement in a contested environment. A low-cost, untethered solution that can be deployed to better characterize mines and buried objects in the littoral environment will both increase mission safety and lead to faster mine clearing operations. In order to meet the Navy’s needs, Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) will develop the Soft Extending Autonomous Robot for Clearing Hazards (SEARCH). The SEARCH is a compact soft robot that burrows into the seabed to autonomously characterize buried objects within a 10-meter radius of its deployed position.