Robot Boats Hunt High-Tech Pirates on the High-Speed Seas

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Robot Boats Hunt High-Tech Pirates on the High-Speed Seas
As maritime crime heats up, will the U.S. Navy follow Israel and Singapore’s lead to stock up on new unmanned surface vessels? And could they stop Al Qaeda?


The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard have expressed interest in the 30-ft.-long Protector, which comes mounted with a machine gun and could be retrofitted for commercial use. (Photograph Courtesy of BAE Systems)


By Erik Sofge
Published on: October 31, 2007

Robots versus pirates—it’s not as stupid, or unlikely, as it sounds. Piracy has exploded in the waters near Somalia, where this past week United States warships have fired on two pirate skiffs, and are currently in pursuit of a hijacked Japanese-owned vessel. At least four other ships in the region remain under pirate control, and the problem appears to be going global: The International Maritime Bureau is tracking a 14-percent increase in worldwide pirate attacks this year.

And although modern-day pirates enjoy collecting their fare share of booty—they have a soft spot for communications gear—they’re just as likely to ransom an entire ship. In one particularly sobering case, hijackers killed one crew member of a Taiwan-owned vessel each month until their demands were met.

For years now, law enforcement agencies across the high seas have proposed robotic boats, or unmanned surface vessels (USVs), as a way to help deal with 21st-Century techno Black Beards. The Navy has tested at least two small, armed USV demonstrators designed to patrol harbors and defend vessels. And both the Navy and the Coast Guard have expressed interest in the Protector, a 30-ft.-long USV built by BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Israeli defense firm RAFAEL.

The Protector, which comes mounted with a 7.62mm machine gun, wasn’t originally intended for anti-piracy operations. But according to BAE Systems spokesperson Stephanie Moncada, the robot could easily fill that role. “Down the line, it could potentially be modified for commercial use as well,” she says. Instead of being deployed by a warship to intercept and possibly fire on an incoming vessel, a non-lethal variant of the Protector could be used to simply investigate a potential threat.

A favorite tactic of modern-day pirates is to put out a distress call, then ambush any ships that respond. The unmanned Protector could be remote-operated from around 10 miles away, with enough on-board sensors, speakers and microphones to make contact with a vessel before it’s too late. “Even without the machine gun, it could alert the crew, give them some time to escape,” Moncada says.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/robotics/4229443.html

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The 55-mph Interceptor could become the long-range patrol boat of the future, while the jetski-size Sentry (inset) could help prevent a terrorist plot such as Al Qaeda’s attack on the USS Cole in December 2000. (Photographs Courtesy of MRVI and Qinetiq—inset)

This past summer, Florida-based Marine Robotic Vessels International (MRVI) unveiled a USV that emphasizes reconnaissance over firepower. The 21-ft.-long Interceptor can travel at up to 55 mph, and is designed to be piloted both remotely and autonomously.

For a patrol boat, autonomous control would be a huge advantage, allowing it to traverse huge stretches of open sea, instead of having to remain within radio range of a given vessel. While the Interceptor could be fitted with a water cannon or other non-lethal offensive system, its primary mission is to serve as a sentry.

According to MRVI President Dan Murphy, the Interceptor is available now. But the USV market is just getting started: Two months ago, British defense firm Qinetiq debuted its own robotic vessel, the jetski-size Sentry. Among its potential duties is intruder investigation, which could include scouting out unidentified boats, along the lines of the raft that detonated alongside the USS Cole in Yemen, as well as offering a first look at a possible pirate-controlled vessel. The Sentry, however, can only operate for up to six hours at a time, severely limiting its ability to operate at sea.

Although the Protector is currently deployed by the Israeli and Singaporean Navies, the U.S. Navy has yet to field a full-production USV, much less a pirate-hunting one. But if piracy continues to escalate around the world, it may only a matter of time before the private sector gets fed up and buys a few unmanned boats to act as scouts. After all, one of the best things a robot can do is get blown to pieces ... so you don’t have to.

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Robots Are Tougher Than You, Part 1: The Deep Sea
Robots go where people can’t: collapsed underground mine shafts, on one-way trips into deep space and down into the bone-crushing bottom of the sea. With inhuman strength and smarts, robots routinely explore inhospitable territory in which high radiation, extreme temperatures or complete lack of atmospheric pressure would cause human beings to suffocate, freeze solid, explode into tiny chunks or all of the above at the same time. Even so, robots are far from invincible. Over the next several columns, we will explore the grave and mortal challenges faced by robots that boldly go where humankind cannot or will not. Robots are tougher than you are, but in the end you can feel better about yourself knowing that even the metal ones are vulnerable to Mother Nature.

First, a fun fact to know and tell: More people have traveled into outer space than have traveled to the deep ocean. (If there were ever a brawl between astronauts and aquanauts, the astronauts would thrash the water dwellers.) The deep sea crushes puny humans, but she reveals her secrets to intrepid robot explorers called autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). These metallic Jacques Cousteaus map the sea floor, study life in the deepest ocean trenches and, in the case of an almost 30-foot-long untethered AUV named Seahorse, do it alone based on the Navy’s pre-programming and artificial intelligence. While robots may be immune to low temperatures and lack of oxygen, they must face a host of other calamities, especially these five.... —Daniel H. Wilson, Resident Roboticist


HIGH PRESSURE
Submersible robots must be pressure-rated before being declared sea-ready. The cheapest approach: Place delicate electronics inside one-atmosphere glass spheres. Unfortunately, even a tiny scratch can compromise the sphere, causing an implosion and catastrophic failure, especially if the waterlogged sphere sinks the craft. Another solution is to use titanium or carbon fiber pressure housings; they look like metal spheres or tubes with sturdy caps on both ends.

CONNECTORS
The electronics encased within a pressure housing still need to communicate with the motors, sensors and, in the case of some Dorado-class AUVs at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, elaborate underwater docking mechanisms. Running a cable out without letting water in is tricky: Connectors are usually surrounded by epoxy, and the pressure housing itself may be compensated (i.e. filled) with an oil that is somewhat positively pressurized. The positive pressure means that oil may leak out, but no water will come in.

COMMUNICATION
Radio frequency communication does not work underwater, so AUVs must communicate with each other acoustically, like whales. Talking to humans is even more difficult—AUVs may have traveled to inhospitable waters miles away from the nearest ship. For AUVs such as the BlueFin Glider, the only option is to surface and establish a bi-directional satellite link, sending data and receiving new commands. Data is often transferred randomly so that in case of interruption the scientists will still have a random sampling of information. Back at home, scientists may choose to receive AUV status updates just like any teenager would—by cellphone text messages.

CONTROL
With minimal communication to the surface, AUVs rely on artificial intelligence to operate autonomously on a day-to-day basis—dealing on their own with strong currents, storms and noisy sensor readings. Submersed robots follow algorithms inspired by schools of fish to efficiently explore huge rectangular swathes of ocean. During the journey, only a limited number of measurements are possible, so many AUVs use adaptive sampling to take measurements only when something interesting happens.

EMERGENCY PLANNING
But what if the worst—a water leak, a mechanical failure, a shark attack—happens? AUVs may be extremely isolated, but human rescue is possible—just as long as the robot doesn’t sink. For this reason, many AUVs are designed to be positively buoyant; they simply float to the surface if motors fail. For these buoyant AUVs, traveling down to 4000 meters (about 2.5 miles) can take up to an entire day. Other AUVs contain burn-wires—electrical circuits that activate and burn out in emergencies, dropping a jettison weight that helps the robot surface quickly to radio for help.


Daniel H. Wilson is the author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising and the forthcoming Where's My Jetpack? You can ask him a question by e-mailing him at PMAsktheRoboticist@gmail.com.

Previous Resident Roboticist columns: Top 5 Robots that Own You, Top 5 Robots You Can Own, Pushing Human Boundaries, Living in a Robot Ecosystem

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Submersible robots like the Navy's 10,800-lb. unmanned Seahorse must be pressure-rated before being declared sea-ready. PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN F. WILLIAMS/U.S. NAVY

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The Seahorse-class Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) from the applied research laboratory at Penn State University is lowered into the water prior to undergoing launch and recovery testing with Sea Fighter (FSF-1). PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN F. WILLIAMS/U.S. NAVY

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The crew aboard the mine hunter coastal ship USS Falcon recover the Bluefin—an unmanned anti-mine warfare vehicle designed to travel along a preset coarse once launched. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY U.S. NAVY