Autonomous Platforms in Persistent

Littoral Undersea Surveillance: Scientific

and Systems Engineering Challenges
David L. Martin, Ph.D., CAPT, USN (Ret.)
Associate Director
Applied Physics Laboratory
University of Washington
October 6, 2005

NPS Menneken Lecture Series

 MAJOR NAVAL LABORATORIES, WARFARE
CENTERS, AND UNIVERSITY LABORATORIES

Applied Physics Laboratory

University of Washington Applied Research Laboratory
Pennsylvania State University
Naval Undersea Naval Research Laboratory
Warfare Center, Naval Undersea
Keyport Warfare Center

Applied Physics
Laboratory
Johns Hopkins University

Naval Air
Warfare Center

Naval Surface
Warfare Center
Naval Research Laboratory
Monterey

Naval Command, Control, and Naval Research Laboratory

Ocean Surveillance Center Stennis Space Center
Applied Research Laboratories
University of Texas
 AT A GLANCE
R&D Program
Ocean Acoustics – MCM, ASW, Acoustical Oceanography
Sonars – Imaging, Mine, Ship
Submarine Acoustic Systems – ACINT
Arctic/Polar Science – Global Climate Change, SHEBA, SEARCH, SUBICEX
Ocean Physics – Turbulent Mixing, Electromagnetic Sensing
Satellite Remote Sensing - air/sea fluxes, aerosols, sea surface height, waves
Medical Ultrasound - Acoustic Hemostasis, Imaging, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound, Lithotripsy

R&D Budget Personnel

Admin Hourly Ph.D.
57 12 83
6.2
ONR 6.1
6.3 Students
46% Dev 54% Basic NSF
6.4 48
NASA
NIH
Tech Support S&E’s
$43M FY04 10 90
62% Navy Derived
300 Total
 Navy ASW CONOPs
• Near-term, leverage
– Data collection/sharing
– Collaborative real-time planning
– Reachback support
– Precision engagement
• Smart planning & precision execution in
Hold at Risk and Secure Friendly
Maneuver Area operations
• Far term, shift from “platform-intensive” to
“sensor-rich” operations
– Networks of sensors coupled to standoff
weapons

Themes
Persistence Speed & Operational Agility
Pervasive Awareness Technological Agility
 Background
32 • The Navy’s Hold-at-Risk ASW
strategy requires operation in
200 500
30 choke points, port areas, and open
220 x 330 km 50 ocean areas.
Notional Field
28 – Environments are harsh and
100 1000
2500 changing
26 – Required areas of coverage are
5000
5000 large
24 50
– Time frames of operational
effectiveness are long (weeks
22 to months)
50 x 175 km 5000
Notional – Desired effectiveness is high
20 Barriers
2500
50 m
100 m
with low risk to blue forces
200 m
500 m • Current systems do not support
18 5000
1000 m
2500 m this ASW strategy.
5000 m
16
116 118 120 122 124 126 128 130 132
 Undersea Persistent Surveillance

Provide accurate, persistent submarine surveillance in complex environments

Sea Power 21
Orange Naval Base Sea Shield
ASW
Orange Naval Base Constructs

Sea
Base

Ports
Blue Base
Op Area

REF: N74B ASW MCP Presentaion

Reduce the “detect-to-engage” timeline

 Undersea Gliders for Navy Applications
• APL-UW Investigators:
– Marc Stewart (mstewart@apl.washington.edu)
– Bob Miyamoto (rtm@apl.washington.edu)
– Jim Luby (jcl@apl.washington.edu)
– Craig Lee (craig@apl.washington.edu)
– Bruce Howe (howe@apl.washington.edu)
• UW School of Oceanography
– Charlie Eriksen (eriksen@u.washington.edu)
• Office of Naval Research
– Tom Swean (sweant@onr.navy.mil)
– Tom Curtin (curtint@onr.navy.mil)
– Theresa Paluszkiewicz (theresa_paluszkiewicz@navy.mil)
– Mike Traweek (mike_traweek@onr.navy.mil)
• Program sponsors: ONR, DARPA
• ONR RIMPAC04
• ONR TASWEX04
• Future Glider Technologies
– ONR Xray flying wing glider
– FutureGlider concept
• Role in Persistent Littoral Undersea Surveillance
RIMPAC June-July 2004
RIMPAC June-July 2004
RIMPAC June-July 2004
 Acoustic effects of internal waves

Profiles 139-145
PROFILES 139 TO 145 CASS Transmission Loss
Sound Speed Profiles CASS Transmission Loss - Ten Sequential Seaglider Profiles
0 -50

-100
Direct path
-60

Target Depth = 300m

-200

-70
Target – 300m
-300
Source/receiver – 7.6m
Source Depth = 7.6m

Transmission Loss (dB)

Depth - meters

-80
-400

-500 -90
40-60m oscillations
-600
of thermocline -100

-700

-110
-800 Bottom-bounce
Conv-Zone
-900 -120
1480 1490 1500 1510 1520 1530 1540 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Sound Speed - meters/second Range (KYD)
 TASWEX04
14 – 22 October SG017 Track
Red = glider track SUCCESSES:
Turquoise = glider heading - Research glider borrowed for Navy exercise
Blue = depth-averaged current
Green = surface current
- JJVV & KKYY message auto-generation

- 100% data reliability despite typhoon

- Mixed layer depth pegged

(70m deeper than model)

- Tide-induced internal wave effects

Kuroshio main jet Evaluated (and made a difference!)

- Seamless rendezvous with Bowditch

CHALLENGES:
- Glider data rate vs. model capabilities

UNCLASSIFIED
 Internal Waves on ECS Shelf
Profiles 95-114, 19 October ‘04
Sound Speed Profiles
0

-20

Profiles 95-114
-40

-60
Depth - meters

-80

-100

-120

-140

-160
30-45m oscillations
of thermocline
-180
1510 1515 1520 1525 1530 1535 1540
Sound Speed - meters/second
 CASS Transmission Loss -10
Target Depth = 0 M

File 1
File 2
File 3
File 4
File 5
-20
File 6
File 7

-30

Source = 7.6m

Transmission Loss (dB)

Receiver – surface -40

-50

-60

Sound Speed Profiles

0 -70

-80
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
-20 Range (km)

Profiles 95-114 -30

Target Depth = 75 M

File 1
-40 File 2
File 3
File 4
-40 File 5

-60
10dB at 5km -50
File 6
File 7
Depth - meters

-60

Transmission Loss (dB)

-80

Receiver – 75m -70

-100
15dB at 10km
-80

-90
-120
-100

-140
-110
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Range (km)

Target Depth = 99999 M

-160 -20
File 1
File 2

10dB at 5km -40

File 3
File 4
File 5
File 6
File 7
-180
1510 1515 1520 1525 1530 1535 1540
Sound Speed - meters/second
-60

20dB at 15km

Transmission Loss (dB)

-80

Receiver – bottom -100

-120

-140
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Range (km)
SG022 Double Bow-Tie Pattern (Dabob Bay)
SG022 Station-keeping (Dabob Bay)
Cumulative UW Glider Results
• 22 gliders built, 15 ordered
• 4 flying today: Hawaii, Washington Coast (1), Labrador
Sea** (2)
• 8 Four-, 7 Five-, and 6 Six-month missions
– April 05, SG022 & 023 finished 6+ month, ~600 dive,
3000+ km voyages - new record
• 2500 glider-days of operation
(~75% of total by all gliders)
• Over 32,500 kilometers traveled through water
• 9 lost at sea, 1 recovered (SG004)
 There is a Broad Glider Effort
SeaGlider

Slocum
Spray

ONR FUNDED (FY03) – TOM SWEAN

A Snapshop of the Overall Glider Program
Global Deployment, (very) Remote Control

Seaglider Slocum Spray Liberdade

 Undersea Glider Milestones

1993 1995 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006

Slocum Paper
NAVO WestPac Demo
(Oceanography
(Slocum, Philippine Sea)
)
AOSN Paper
RIMPAC-04 Demo
(Oceanography)
AOSN-I (Seaglider,
APL-UW
Hawaii)
AOSN Glider Development
(Slocum, Seaglider, Spray) TASWEX-04 Demo
(Seaglider, East China Sea)
Navy Exercises…
Adaptive Sampling
Experiments (Slocum, NJ)
SHAREM 148 Demo
Webb Slocum Production
OBE… (Slocum, WestPac)

NAVO Demo
AOSN Special Issue (Spray, FL)
(IEEE/JOE)
AOSN-II
CNMOC/NAVO
Glider System Operational Gliders
Study TTI
AOSN-II Adaptive Sampling
Experiments (Slocum, Spray; Monterey
Bay)
Deep Convection
Experiments (Seaglider, Lab
Sea)
Coastal Current Experiments
(Seaglider; CA, WA, AK
Color Key Coasts)
Bluefin Licenses High Performance Prototype
S&T Experimentation
Spray Tests (Liberdade, San Diego)
Publication
Cape Cod to Bermuda
Section (Spray, North
Operational
Atlantic) Advanced Glider Research
Experimentation
APL/UW Glider Cost
Operational Transition
Center ASAP, AESOP, LOCO
UPS (Spray, Slocum,
Commercialization Seaglider, Liberdade, X-
Ray; Monterey Bay)
TBC, 2004
 ONR X-RAY Flying Wing Glider

• Funded by Office of Naval Research (Dr. Tom Swean)

• Collaboration with Marine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institute
of Oceanography (San Diego, CA)
• High efficiency blended wing/body concept
• Designed to operate in efficient Reynolds number regime
• High lift to drag ratio will permit long duration energy efficient
operations
• Acoustic and EM sensors
• Navy interested in potential for long range, autonomous
surveillance
 Xray Glide Polar

Cruise speed: 5 kts

Wing span: 20 feet
L/D: 19.5
Xray prototype

Winglet
 FutureGlider Concept

• Primary mission: Surveillance of far-forward, littoral areas

• Design goals
– Low cost
– Autonomous operations
– Persistence
– Stealth
– Ease of launch/recovery (2 people, variety of platforms)
– Over the horizon launch with rapid transit to operating area
– Recoverable and reusable
FutureGlider: Booster/Glider
FutureGlider: Conformal Sensors
FutureGlider: Booster jettison
Multi-Institution Effort in
Persistent Littoral
Undersea Surveillance
Network (PLUSNet)
PLUSNet Concept
Unmanned Systems Approach to
Distributed Sensor ASW Surveillance
Use mature (enough) technologies to
field a scalable system demonstration
Environmentally and tactically
adaptive, cable-free sensor network
Fixed sensor nodes
Mobile sensor nodes
Assess environment
Redeploy (adapt)
Directed as sensor "wolfpacks”
Autonomous processing
Nested communication structure
 Defining Parameters

• Clandestine undersea surveillance for submarines in

far-forward and/or contested waters of order 103 - 104
square nautical miles, shallow and deep water, operating
for months.

• Innovative technologies integrated into scalable

systems.

• Systems at all scales that are deployable, affordable

and effective for large area, persistent coverage.
 Acoustic and Ocean Models
Targeted Observations

220 km
Acoustic Vector Sensor Arrays
E-Field sensors

Adaptability, Feedback
UPS
Directional Sensitivity

Cornerstones
Mobility, Persistence
Autonomy

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Autonomous DCL

Acoustic modems Automated Tracking

Stages of Undersea Persistent Surveillance
Ocean Nowcast / Forecast

Noise Statistics Signal Cues

Stage I
Adaptive Search
Maximize PD, Minimize PFA

Target Glimpse

Stage II
Adaptive DCL
Maximize Gain

Target Lock

Stage III
Adaptive Convergence
Maximize Intersect Probability

Neutralization
Environmental Assessment

Environmental acoustic assessment –

e.g., bathymetry, SVP, detection
ranges…, finalize network cluster
topology and fixed/mobile mix
Sensor Deployment

Environmental acoustic assessment –

e.g., bathymetry, SVP, detection ranges…,
finalize network cluster topology and
fixed/mobile mix

Fixed and mobile sensor nodes

launched from SSGN, LCS, USV and
deploy for optimum surveillance
coverage. AUV’s enter semi-dormant
state as temporarily fixed or drifting
nodes
Reconfigure Network

Environmental acoustic assessment –

e.g., bathymetry, SVP, detection ranges…,
finalize cluster topology and fixed/mobile
mix

Fixed and mobile sensor nodes launched

from SSGN, LCS, USV and deploy for
optimum surveillance coverage. AUV’s
enter semi-dormant state as temporarily
fixed or drifting nodes

Reconfigure mobile sensors nodes

based on current tactical or
environmental situation
 Target Detection

Environmental acoustic assessment –

e.g., bathymetry, SVP, detection ranges…,
finalize cluster topology and fixed/mobile
mix

Fixed and mobile sensor nodes launched

from SSGN, LCS, USV and deploy for
optimum surveillance coverage. AUV’s
enter semi-dormant state as temporarily
fixed or drifting nodes

Reconfigure mobile sensors nodes

based on current tactical or environmental
situation

Target initial detection communicated

to network (ACOMMS or RF)
 Wolfpack Response
Environmental acoustic assessment – e.g.,
bathymetry, SVP, detection ranges…, finalize
cluster topology and fixed/mobile mix

Fixed and mobile sensor nodes launched

from SSGN, LCS, USV and deploy for
optimum surveillance coverage. AUV’s enter
semi-dormant state as temporarily fixed or
drifting nodes

Reconfigure mobile sensors nodes based

on current tactical or environmental situation

Target initial detection communicated to

network (ACOMMS or RF)

Mobile asset "wolfpack" responds to

detection to achieve weapon firing criteria
DCL
 Undersea Surveillance Seascape
6.1
Sensors ONR 31/32/33/35/NRL Team Efforts
Energy
Comms
Navigation
Control Adaptive Sampling and Prediction Using Mobile Sensing Networks (ASAP)
Modeling
Targeted observations Autonomous Wide Aperture Cluster for Surveillance (AWACS)
Cooperative behavior
Adaptive gain
Clutter/Noise suppression Undersea Persistent Surveillance (UPS)
6.2
Four dimensional target discrimination Undersea Persistent Glider Patrol / Intervention (Sea Sentry)
Mobile sensor environmental adaptation Undersea Bottom-stationed Network Interdiction (CAATS)
Target interdiction with mobile sensors
Persistent Ocean Surveillance (POS)
Fixed surface nodes
Congressional Plus-ups
Component technologies ONR/DARPA/NAVSEA SBIR efforts
6.3 Littoral Anti-Submarine Warfare (FNC)
Fixed bottom nodes

Adaptive path planning Autonomous Operations (FNC)

Persistent Littoral
Prototype system integration Undersea
and testing Surveillance (PLUS)
ONR
(INP)
DARPA
NAVSEA
PMS-403 Task Force ASW
Italics: potential new program PEO-LMW PEO-IWS
Submarine T&T Theater ASW BAA
Critical Mass Team
Experience
 Field Efforts
FY05 FY06 FY07

Collaborative Vehicles
(SACLANT)

ASAP MURI
(Monterey Bay)

Liberdade / X-Ray

Final Demo ONR

SeaHorse / LCCA Acoustic Observatory –
Systems Level Concept
ACOMMS Demonstration
(Ft. Lauderdale)
 PLUSNet Steps Toward Future Systems
Capabilities –
Elimination of bottom cable enables rapid
deployment and survivability of cueing system.
Persistence through power saving sensing
technology and intelligent AUV behaviors
Advanced communications technologies enable
both remote control and autonomous operations.
Autonomous, adaptive network control exploiting
changes in tactical and environmental picture for
improved DCL.
Use of coordinated AUV wolfpack operation reduces
need to send tactical platforms in harm’s way and
increases likelihood of successful target
prosecution.
A “System of Systems” Systems Engineering Approach
 Embedded Research and
Systems Engineering Issues
 Shallow water environment  Sensor technology

 Acoustics  Vector sensors

 Oceanography  E-field sensors

 Modeling and Inversion  Synthetic apertures

 Performance prediction under  AUV Technology

uncertainty
 Intelligent behavior
 Environmental Adaptivity
 Collaborative behavior
 Signal processing (including
 Quieting
multiplatform, MFP, invariants)
 Sensor integration
 Autonomous signal processing
 Power
 Sensing and Network control
 Navigation approaches
 Acomms/channel capacity
 Integrated sensing and control
 Data fusion-Heterogeneous sensor
data assimilation
 Summary

 Distributed sensor field of

networked unmanned fixed and
mobile sensors for ASW surveillance

 Tactical and oceanographic

environments sensed in real time,
with sensor network reconfigured to
improve target DCL

 Substantive research and systems

engineering issues in this highly
complex systems-of-systems effort
must be addressed.