Novel Low Cost Deepwater Delivery System

Oceanographic, biologic, and environmental data collection is needed to better understand the world's oceans and to support naval operations. A large portion of ocean data is collected using underwater sensors that are deployed on the seabed. Although marine sensors vary widely in design and application, there is a need for low-cost seabed deployment approaches for marine sensors.  At present, most existing methods for the seabed deployment of underwater sensors suffer from a combination of high costs, low payload capacity, minimal maneuverability, or restrictions to shallow depths.  Low-cost deep capable alternatives are needed. This SBIR topic intends to solicit novel ideas for low-cost seabed payload deployment in various depths of water. A deployment system costing less than $200K with a deployment cost of less than $300K per deepwater mission, that will greatly enable and extend deepwater sensor-based activities in oceanographic, biologic, and environmental data collection.  The proposed deployment system will deliver sensor payloads with a dry weight of up to 100 lbs (45 kg), a net negative buoyancy ranging from 0 to 50 lbs (23 kg), and a total volume of up to 1000 cubic inches (16.4 liters). Although many sensor payloads are currently of cylindrical form factors, solution concepts explored here will have moderate flexibility in-form to accommodate both variations in payload shape and net buoyancy over the ranges provided.  The delivery vehicle will be easily transported and stowed, ideally with minimal storage footprint and special equipment required. The research will also include concepts surrounding a two-person portable, deployable solution in order to maximize deployment cost savings.  The delivery vehicle itself will be of sufficiently low cost and have a negligible environmental impact. This will allow the system to support missions where recovery of the delivery vehicle is not feasible or not desired.  A delivery vehicle that achieves accurate seabed placement of a sensor over an operationally relevant horizontal distance from the deploying vessel will provide the most mission flexibility. The proposed solution will focus on providing horizontal standoff (range) capabilities from the deploying vessel of a relevant range of 1km or greater. The required accuracy for payload placement by the delivery vehicle will vary with different sensor payloads, but a seabed placement uncertainty of 33ft (10m) is a core objective of this proposal.  Within this SBIR we will design and develop a low cost, delivery vehicle that will accommodate for the potential for full ocean depth deployments using mostly off the shelf components and assemblies.  This vehicle is based on a glider style vehicle with a weight-based buoyancy system configured for a finite number of glide oscillations. The vehicle can be configured to return to surface or remain on the bottom and corrode over a reasonable period of time.