Robotic tuna developed for Homeland Security
September 25, 2012
BIOSwimmer (credit: (Credit: Boston Engineering Corporation)
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security‘s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is funding the development of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) modeled on the tuna, called the BIOSwimmer.
BIOSwimmer is designed for high maneuverability in harsh environments, with a flexible aft section and appropriately placed sets of pectoral and other fins.
For cluttered and hard-to-reach underwater places where inspection is necessary, the tuna-inspired frame design is optimal. It can inspect the interior voids of ships such as flooded bilges and tanks, and hard-to-reach external areas such as steerage, propulsion and sea chests. It can also inspect and protect harbors and piers, perform area searches and carry out other security missions.
Boston Engineering Corporation’s Advanced Systems Group (ASG) in Waltham, Massachusetts is developing the BIOSwimmer for S&T. “It’s designed to support a variety of tactical missions and with its interchangeable sensor payloads and reconfigurable Operator Controls, can be optimized on a per-mission basis” says the Director of ASG, Mike Rufo.
BIOSwimmer is battery-powered and designed for long-duration operation. Like other unmanned underwater vehicles, it uses an onboard computer suite for navigation, sensor processing, and communications. Its Operator Control Unit is laptop-based and provides intuitive control and simple, mission-defined versatility for the user. The internal components and external sensing are designed for the challenging environment of constricted spaces and high viscosity fluids.
Comments (5)
by Bri
To creat a better robo tuna, it isn’t infeasable to have a cyborg tuna, with a machine brain and metal skeleton. Kind of a terminator tuna. It’s a little known fact that GORT, from the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, stands for genetically optimized robotic tuna!!!!!
by Bri
It’s actually quite tasty!!! I just wouldn’t want to try and catch one.
by moby doug
Makes a tough sushi called robo-takana. That’s all that will be left after we extinguish the last of the bluefins.
by Daniel
Wonder what fishermen will do when they start pulling these ‘tuna’ up in there nets. Will they be required to dump them back overboard? Would there be a black market to sell these things? They could probably be reprogrammed to smuggle drugs easily enough. Wonder what would bring more money, a real tuna or one of these robots.
by Gorden Russell
Maybe now they’ll be able to catch those fiberglass submarines that the Colombians are using. They must find out a way to stop those before the Iranians develop their fission bomb and sneak it into one of our seaports.