Collaborative multistatic ASW using AUVs: demonstrating necessary technologies

Abstract

Many research laboratories and several nations are showing an interest in the 'underwater networked battlespace' in which a combination of stationary and mobile underwater platforms communicate wholly or partially by the use of underwater modems. Scientific advancements and technological development have been shown in the arenas of environmental sampling, minedetection and classification and, more recently, in the field of anti-submarine warfare (ASW). InASW, in particular, new operational paradigms are evolving for slowly moving systems which have low bandwidth communication between platforms, necessitating high levels of onboard processing and highly developed autonomous behaviours.As part of NURC's ongoing research into collaborative ASW using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) a major sea-trial has been held to investigate enabling technologies and toinvestigate the detection and localisation performance of such AUV-based systems.