A few folks have asked me about the photo in the banner of this blog. It’s from an assignment I did for a local newspaper about the annual student AUV competition that was held here in San Diego at the Point Loma US Navy base. Below is a gallery of my images from the event, followed by the article that ran in the paper. Click on the images to see a full size, full res version. All images and text below are copyrighted material but are available for use by contacting me (ronan@subaquaimaging.com).
Ronan.
The Peninsula Beacon, Aug. 7th 2008
by Ronan Gray
Over the past couple of weeks San Diego has played host to two events that attract visitors from all over the nation and as far away as India and Japan because they are so unique. While attendance at the first event far outweighs the second one, both events attract a crowd that dream of boldly going where no man has gone before. While the visitors to the now world famous Comic Con festival may dream of exploring the unexplored, the attendees of the second, less famous event are actually making progress towards doing exactly that.
This past weekend 250 college and high school students from the USA, Canada, Japan and India gathered at a cold-war era Naval research facility on a small Point Loma bluff high above the Pacific Ocean. They were there to pit their wits and their Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) against one another in the UNDERSEAS ELEVEN competition. The eleventh annual event was hosted by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Autonomous Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) organization at the San Diego Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SSC) historicTRANSDEC sonar test pool.
Two of the 26 teams that competed are based in San Diego. The San Diego City college team includes students from City College and San Diego State University (SDSU). Jenny Wise, Project Manager of the second local team, San Diego I-Botics says that the group is was founded by some former members of the City College team and is comprised mostly of University of California San Diego, (UCSD) students. Wise is a City College business major and the only woman on her 12-member team. “I’m the Mom” she jokes. Wise whose day job is General Manger of Hostelling International’s Point Loma Hostel on Udal Street said that the team is two years old and this is the first year that they expect to pass the first qualifying round.
On Friday the teams were working on their vehicles beneath white canopies along the eastern perimeter of the TRANSDEC basin while a group of judges made their way around the site to hear each team explain the technical details of their vehicle. The facility itself looks like the set of a science-fiction movie. The central feature is a 200ft by 300ft dark pool of 38ft deep water bisected by a huge bridge-like structure of steel girders. There is a windsock along the western boundary and a small helicopter-landing zone just outside the fence to the south. The weeds pushing through the asphalt surface of the landing pad add to the sense of cold-war mystery and intrigue. The pool has been used as a test basin for SONAR systems since it was constructed in 1964. The deep, clear water and sloping sides make it the ideal location for this unusual competition.
UCSD PhD students Gideon Prior and Nima Ghods were working on San Diego I-Botics vehicle after the judges heard their presentation on Friday. The small, stingray-shaped was a stark contrast to most of the other vehicles which look like a haphazard collection of metal bars, housings, propellers and thrusters. Several teams used simple waterproof cases about the same size and shape of a brief case. The cases keep the electronic brains of their vehicles dry and provide a mounting surface for the thrusters that drive them through the water. “That makes the design a lot quicker and they can get to some of the programming a lot earlier”, says Prior. But he says that the unusual shape of the I-Botics vehicle is designed to mimic nature and increase hydrodynamic efficiency. “It looks a lot cooler too”, says Prior, adding that “cool points count at the end of the day”. The main part of the competition is an underwater course of obstacles and tasks that the vehicles must navigate through within a certain time limit. However, points are also awarded based on the design and technical presentation of each teams vehicle.
The idea of using unmanned or autonomous vehicles for military and scientific applications is not a new one. In recent years however the concept of an unmanned aircraft patrolling the skies and actually engaging an enemy has transitioned from the pages of science fiction novels to the reality of the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Fueled in part by the United States ongoing involvement in those conflicts, the recent advances in the efficiency and deadly accuracy of these aircraft have been both rapid and well documented. Since the conflicts began, video footage of their missions has regularly surfaced on sites like YouTube and even national news networks. Grainy, monochromatic video footage from infrared cameras often show airborne drones executing their deadly missions in gruesome detail. In the most recent example, an edited version of footage taken by a drone patrolling the Afghan – Pakistani border that documented the tracking and killing of a group of fighters exchanging fire with US troops was shown on CNN’s website.
The essential difference between aerial vehicles and submerged vehicles is that the radio waves used to communicate with the airborne vehicles do not transmit through water. So while an AUV is submerged the operator cannot control its movement or receive live video signals and other data about its progress. In the majority of cases the underwater vehicle must be programmed to complete a series of tasks and make decisions along the way based on the live data it receives from its sensors as the mission progresses. The concept is not new and for years researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) have used simple non-propelled AUVs that drift with ocean currents to study the major circulation in the oceans. The drifters are programmed to submerge and drift with the ocean current for periods of time, returning to the surface periodically to communicate position and scientific data back to the institution via satellite.
As the missions for AUVs grow in complexity, the need for new and innovative technologies increases. The competition provides an opportunity for the Navy and the judges to meet and recruit new talent. The judges are mostly veterans of the highly specialized industry and many are potential employers of the young engineers and scientists. Representatives of Boeing and San Diego companies SeaBotix Inc. and Remote Ocean Systems Inc, who are already engaged in building of underwater vehicles were on site speaking to students and exchanging contact information.
The underwater portion of UNDERSEAS ELEVEN wrapped up on Sunday but a second, separate competition for Autonomous surface vessels will begin this Thursday, August 7 and runs through Saturday August 9th. It is open to the public most days between 9am and 5pm and admission is free.
Once a world leader, research shows that the US is falling behind in the essential fields that drive technology forward. Interest, participation and achievement in math, science and engineering have fallen across the nation that once built great railroads, industry and put the first man on the moon. The powerful distractions for young budding scientists are great and evident in the sell-out success of events like Comic Con. At the AUVSI competition it was gratifying to see at least a handful of young, elementary age children making their way through the team exhibits. On Sunday, with his team’s chances of making the final gone, Nate Tinkler of Georgia Tech took the time to open up his teams AUV and patiently answer a stream of simple but inquisitive questions from a San Diego second grader. This week’s competition will provide another opportunity to inspire and encourage budding scientists and engineers.
If you are the parent of a budding scientist or engineer this is a great opportunity to inspire and encourage them along. If nothing else, it provides the rare opportunity to visit a historical and fascinating site that is not often open to the public.
Copyright Ronan Gray 2008 and Peninsula Beacon 2008. No unauthorized reproduction allowed.
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