Bluefin
Robotics, a leading provider of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs),
announced that the company has successfully completed deep-water testing
of a specialized UUV for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA). The system was developed under a Phase II subcontract from
Applied Physical Sciences Corp. (APS) for the Deep Sea Operations (DSOP)
Program. DSOP is part of DARPA’s Distributed Agile Submarine Hunting
program (DASH), which aims to develop affordable distributed technology
to address Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) surveillance needs over large,
operationally relevant areas.
In February, Bluefin mobilized a Boston Harbor Cruises’ vessel,
the Scarlett Isabella, at their dock in Quincy, Massachusetts and transited
for over 48 hours towards the testing site. While severe weather brought
on by Storm Q forced the team to adjust logistics plans, they were able
to successfully conduct six days of operational testing including two
4,450-meter dives totaling 11 hours. |
Testing
of the system provided Bluefin an opportunity to vet several new vehicle
capabilities for their modular UUVs including an extended operational
depth rating, an advanced pressure vessel design, a new power system,
a newly available high-powered acoustics transducer system, and a transportable
docking head launch and recovery system.
“I am proud to have a team, partners, and vendors that step up
to solve subsea challenges,” said David P. Kelly, President and
CEO of Bluefin Robotics. “We are looking forward to tackling the
next set of challenges posed by the DARPA Program and applying our hard-won
experiences to others.”
Phase III of the contract was awarded in early March and will fund the
full integration of the deep-sea sonar into the vehicle, as well as
fund the production of a second system with sonar to support networked
operations. |
