ROBOTS: Hydra – The Undersea Drone with Drones of its Own

1 May 2014

 

            Cut one head off and two more grow back?  It’s from Greek mythology.  The creature’s name was Hydra.  DARPA has given the same name to a planned unmanned vehicle.  This underwater drone would do little in terms of actual “engagement.”  Instead, it would be “stocked” with drones of every imaginable kind.  Traveling to various hot spots, the Hydra would deploy the numbers and kinds of drones needed to do the job – whatever that job might be.

            The Hydra has been called an underwater version of an aircraft carrier.  Not designed so much to engage in combat or reconnaissance, the Hydra, like the aircraft carrier, is intended to transport items designed for these very purposes.  But, unlike the aircraft carrier, the Hydra is both unmanned and a “submarine” vehicle – tagged with the acronym, UUV, unmanned underwater vehicle.

See: Photos of the Day: The Hydra underwater drone

            A DARPA sponsored presentation of the project was made on “Proposer’s Day” at John’s Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.   The Hydra program’s goal was described as the development of an “unmanned air and undersea system” to deliver “unmanned air and underwater vehicles into operational environments.”

            When you think about it, you realize that building the Hydra also requires building a fleet of drones of every variety with extremely diverse functions.  Just to fill-in a few details, the Hydra doesn’t just carry its payload as it travels underwater, its drones are actually deployed underwater.  Some of the deployed drones could perform their functions underwater.  Others could rise to the surface and continue to operate as unmanned surface vehicles.  Still others could rise to the surface and take off into the air -- becoming airborne.  [view image]

            Although the Hydra is unmanned, this doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be equipped with deployable drones that could, themselves, transport human beings in emergencies. DARPA engineers are considering the design of a “submersible” “capsule” for the transportation of troops.  Again, the troops wouldn’t be passengers in the Hydra.  Rather, the Hydra would deploy a drone able to pick up troops at one location and take them to another location.  The resulting stealth delivery would assist in rescue operations as well as the surgical strike type of military operation. 

            The Hydra’s program manager, Scott Littlefield, has pointed out the economic savings resulting from the use of unmanned technology in the development of underwater defense strategies.  Littlefield sees these unmanned technologies as providing a way to expand our defense capabilities even with tightening budgets. 

DARPA goes deep: New Hydra project to see underwater drones deploying drones

            Clearly, drone technology would be much cheaper to deploy and operate than similar manned technologies.  Historically, submarines, for example, costly, inflexible (slow) in response compared to this proposed drone technology.  Submarines have also presented unavoidable dangers to human crews as well as a good deal of discomfort.

Hydra Program [view video]

            The sheer extent of underwater coverage promised by the development of the Hydra is unprecedented.  The hydra program would maintain a presence beneath all the relatively shallow waters of not only the seas, but also the world’s river systems. But what about the deep seas . . . ?

            Not to worry.

            Complementing the UVV’s of the Hydra program would be the “pods” and “modules” of the UFP program.  The UFP (upward falling payloads) program would place pods containing supply modules and drones on the deep sea floors.  Because of the extremely depth (more than two and a half miles), the pods would quite difficult to access.  On the one hand, the depth provides the perfect stealth.  On the other hand, the access difficulties make it necessary that the pods be designed and stocked to last years at a time. 

UFP [view image]

            Like the Hydra, the UFP pods would be filled with supply modules and drones that could be delivered to the ocean’s surface when needed.  And the delivery is the easiest part of the system.  The modules and drones would be buoyant, lighter than water.  Upon release, with water pressure at the deep sea floor, the drones and/or modules don’t just float, but seem to rush to the surface so quickly that it looks like . . . “falling upward.” Hence, “upward falling payloads.”

ROBOTS: Upward Falling? A New Generation of Undersea Drones

            The Hydra and UFP programs are part of a new wave of logistically oriented drone systems.  The new emphasis can be seen with another DARPA program to compliment the familiar aerial combat drone. DARPA, together with Lockheed Martin, is working to develop not only unmanned aircraft, but unmanned land vehicles to supply soldiers in combat. 

Thursday 1 May 2014

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DARPA: Hydra Program

DARPA Hydra, here comes the mothership designed to deploy drones

What SNL did for the land shark, Lockheed Martin may be doing for the “land drone.”  See: Army, Lockheed to test drones-only mission, by air and land

 

ROBOTS: Upward Falling? A New Generation of Undersea Drones

1 May 2014

If you want to keep an eye on everything, the ocean is a problem.  How do you “watch it?”  It’s really big.  It’s water.  So, it’s hard to put things in it and make them stand still.  Also, watching the ocean is kind of boring.  Over most of the ocean surface, most of the time, nothing much happens.  Then, when you do find out something is “going on” in a particular place, you can go there, but you can’t get there fast enough.

Most of us would just ignore the whole thing and busy ourselves with something else.  But “problems” like the ocean (how to watch all of it all the time) are the meat and potatoes of DARPA strategists.

First, the problem of getting things to say put.  How can you avoid the “ocean issues?” (It’s liquid and wavy.)  If only you could find a solid surface.  But wait.  You can!  The bottom of the ocean.  Go down far enough, and you’ll hit the sea floor.  Then, you need to put something there.  What?   Something that will stay put.  But wait.  That “something” has got to able to “respond” quickly when needed.  So, if you tie it down to the sea floor, it won’t be able to move in an emergency.  If you make it so heavy that the ocean currents won’t be able to move it, it will take more power than you can supply when it has to move in an emergency.

Solution?

Nail down a “pod” to the sea floor.  Like the natural pod filled with seeds, this pod will be filled with minidrones.  When the need arises, release the drones.  Where will the drones get the power to move to the surface quickly?   Well, no “power” is really necessary.  You just make them buoyant – lighter than water.  So, instead of powering to the surface, they rise automatically – “falling upward.”

 

The pods are designed to rest on the ocean floor for long, long periods of time waiting to release drones that will not only rise “toward” the surface, working as sea drones, but will also rise to surface and take off into the air – as airborne drones.

Then, what are these drones supposed to do?

The “upward falling” drones would offer “non-lethal assistance.”  That is, these drones would have surveillance capabilities (surveillance sensors) providing intelligence or targeting information.  They could, also, act as decoys and even use their “low-power” lasers to attack.

The “low power” of the lasers and “non-lethal” attack capabilities are significant and intended limitations.  With over 50% of the ocean floor deeper than two and half miles, recovering the pods, once deployed would be difficult.  If the pods contained advanced weaponry or extremely hazardous materials, their dysfunction or deterioration could cause unintended and unwanted damage to ocean-going vessels.

Following DARPA’s guidelines, the success of the "Upward Falling Payloads" (UFP) program requires the development of a system that can do three things:  First, the system must be able to withstand the extreme pressure of the deep sea floors for a period of years.  Second, the system must be reliably triggered by remote control (“standoff command”).   And third, the drones must “fall upward” fast – rise through the water and deliver their payload.

UFP’s first phase began in 2013 with the design of the pods and their deployable drones/capsules.  Also, the design required communication capabilities allowing the pods to communicate among themselves.  DARPA is now taking bids for the final two phases of the Upward Falling Payloads (UFP) program.

The second phase includes the testing and demonstration of the developed prototypes at sea.  In the third and last phase, to be completed by early 2017, the pods and drones will be scattered at full depth and required to work as one system.  The actual testing will probably be done on either side of the Pacific Ocean with some testing in the western Pacific and other tests in the eastern Pacific off the U.S. coast.

Note the emphasis on communication among the pods and their payloads as well as the systematic performance of all the devices as a coordinated group.   Each unit is not intended or designed to operate with complete independence.  Rather, each is part of a system and network of deep sea pods with the ability to communicate with each other to allow multiple pods to coordinate their activities – if and when necessary.

These units have a natural camouflage/stealth.  Their depth will make detection difficult.  In fact, the pods, themselves, will serve out their useful “lives” well below the depth at which manned vehicles can operate.  So no one can or will be dropping by and visiting the pods on a regular basis.

Someday, maybe sooner than we think, the deep ocean floors will be covered with a latticework of pods quietly biding their time until they are needed.

DARPA UFP’s Upward Falling Payloads

DARPA Wants to Seed the Ocean Depths With Upward Falling UAV Pods

Thursday 1 May 2014

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