STAND-OFF DELIVERY OF UNMANNED UNDERWATER VEHICLES |
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申请号 | US14228686 | 申请日 | 2014-03-28 | 公开(公告)号 | US20150375840A1 | 公开(公告)日 | 2015-12-31 |
申请人 | The Boeing Company; | 发明人 | Kyle Stowers; | ||||
摘要 | Embodiments described herein provide apparatus and method for stand-off deployment of UUVs utilizing self-directed projectiles that include guidance kits. One embodiment is a projectile that includes a guidance kit that directs the projectile in flight. The projectile further includes a shell and a hollow nose cone. The shell mates with the guidance kit and the nose cone couples with the shell. The nose cone includes an interior surface configured to house a UUV. The projectile further includes a controller that identifies a condition for deploying the UUV in flight, and detaches the nose cone from the shell in response to determining that the condition is satisfied. | ||||||
权利要求 | |||||||
说明书全文 | This disclosure relates to the field of unmanned underwater vehicles. An Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) operates underwater without a human occupant. UUVs include Remotely Operated underwater Vehicles (ROVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). ROVs are controlled remotely by a human operator, while AUVs operate independently of direct human input. UUVs may include sensors that provide information about potential threats in the area that the UUV is operating. UUVs may also include propulsion systems to allow the UUV to detect and track possible targets. For example, a UUV may be deployed in waters around regional hot spots to detect and track ships, submarines, other underwater vehicles, etc., and to provide information back to personnel for analysis. A UUV includes batteries which have a limited capacity for providing power for communication equipment, propulsion, sensors, etc. Thus, UUVs may be limited in the distances that they may travel to various regions of interest without including complicated recharging schemes. Further, UUVs often travel slowly, which may result in delays when the UUVs are tasked with travelling long distances to reach a region of interest. While aircraft could fly over the region of interest and deploy a UUV, doing so puts the aircraft at potential risk to hostile fire. Further, the aircraft may alert the potential targets that they may be subject to monitoring. In addition, the travel time for the aircraft to the region of interest reduces how quickly UUVs can be deployed. It therefore remains a problem to deploy UUVs rapidly and safely in regions of interests. Embodiments described herein provide for an apparatus and method related to stand-off deployment of UUVs utilizing self-directed projectiles that include guidance kits. Typically, guidance kits are attached to gravity bombs to convert the gravity bombs into smart munitions. In the described embodiments, a projectile includes a guidance kit attached to a shell having about the same configuration as a gravity bomb. The shell is mated with a hollow nose cone that surrounds a UUV. During flight, the guidance kit directs the projectile to a desired location. The nose cone may then be detached, thereby allowing the UUV to be deployed. One embodiment is a projectile that includes a guidance kit to direct the projectile in flight. The projectile further includes a shell and a hollow nose cone. The shell mates with the guidance kit and the nose cone couples with the shell. The nose cone includes an interior surface that houses a UUV. The projectile further includes a controller that identifies a condition for deploying the UUV in flight, and detaches the nose cone from the shell in response to determining that the condition is satisfied. Another embodiment is a method of deploying a UUV from an interior surface of a nose cone of a projectile. A guidance kit coupled to the projectile directs the projectile in flight. A controller identifies a condition for deploying the UUV in flight, and detaches the nose cone from the projectile in response to determining that the condition is satisfied. Another embodiment is a projectile that includes a guidance kit that directs the projectile in flight. The projectile further includes a shell and a controller. The shell mates with the guidance kit, and includes an interior surface that houses a UUV. The controller identifies a condition for deploying the UUV in flight, and deploys the UUV from the interior surface of the shell in response to determining that the condition is satisfied. The features, functions, and advantages that have been discussed can be achieved independently in various embodiments or may be combined in yet other embodiments further details of which can be seen with reference to the following description and drawings. Some embodiments are now described, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings. The same reference number represents the same element or the same type of element on all drawings. The figures and the following description illustrate specific exemplary embodiments. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various arrangements that, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles described herein and are included within the contemplated scope of the claims that follow this description. Furthermore, any examples described herein are intended to aid in understanding the principles of the disclosure, and are to be construed as being without limitation. As a result, this disclosure is not limited to the specific embodiments or examples described below, but by the claims and their equivalents. In this embodiment, projectile 100 includes a guidance kit 102-103 that directs projectile 100 in flight. Guidance kit 102-103 includes a center section 102 and a tail section 103 that mate with a shell 104. Shell 104 may be configured to have approximately the same shape as a bomb. For instance, if guidance kit 102-103 is designed to mate to a BLU-109 gravity bomb, then shell 104 would be approximately the same size as a BLU-109. This allows guidance kit 102-103 to be affixed to shell 104 without a substantial re-design of guidance kit 102-103. In this embodiment, shell 104 is coupled with a hollow nose cone 106. Nose cone 106, in this embodiment, is configured to house a UUV within an interior surface. Neither the interior surface nor the UUV are visible in Referring again to In order to more clearly understand how projectile 100 may operate, the following example is provided. Assume for this example that it is desirable to deploy UUV 202 to monitor various vehicles in a region of interest. One problem with prior UUV delivery systems was that the delivery aircraft may be exposed to hostile fire when flying over the region to deploy the UUV. Further, the flight may alert various targets in the region of interest that they may be subject to monitoring. Both of these are undesirable. When projectile 100 is dropped or fired from an aircraft, guidance kit 102-103 directs projectile 100 a distance away from the aircraft. In some embodiments, guidance kit 102-103 may be an unpowered guidance kit with a flight range of about 28 km to 80 km. One example of an unpowered guidance kit is a Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit, which has a flight range of about 28 km. Another example of an unpowered guidance kit is a JDAM-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) guidance kit, which has a flight range of about 80 km using wings. An example of a powered guidance kit is a powered JDAM guidance kit, which has a flight range of about 500 km by using both wings and a jet/ramjet engine. In phase 2, projectile 100 is deployed and falls similar to a JDAM-equipped gravity bomb when guidance kit 102-103 is a JDAM guidance kit. Guidance kit 102-103 may move one or more fins 110 located on tail section 103 (see In phase 3, nose cone 106 is decoupled from shell 104 (see step 808 of In another embodiment, a powered JDAM guidance kit is used for stand-off deployment of UUV 202. UUV 600 in this embodiment further includes a number of sensors 614 which allow UUV 600 to collect data about the environment. For instance, sensors 614 may include acoustical sensors allowing UUV 600 to listen to sounds (e.g., machinery sounds, engine sounds, hatch closings, conversations, etc.) on board other vehicles proximate to UUV 600. Sensors 614 may include any number of data collecting capabilities as a matter of design choice. UUV 600 in this embodiment further includes an antenna assembly 616 coupled to a communication system 618. In this view, antenna assembly 616 is deployed. However, antenna assembly 616 would be retracted in some cases, such as when UUV 600 is enclosed within its corresponding nose cone 106. Communication system 618 allows UUV 600 to communicate via antenna assembly 616 to a remote party, such as a remote operator, a remote intelligence analyst, etc. UUV 600 further includes one or more batteries and other control system electronics which are not visible in this view. During operation, UUV 600 may shadow a target (e.g., a surface ship or a submarine), and gather data about the target utilizing sensors 614. During underwater operation, UUV 600 may retract antenna assembly 616. At various times, UUV 600 may approach the surface and extend antenna assembly 616, which then allows UUV 600 to communicate via radio to a remote party utilizing communication system 618. Such communication may include transmitting sensor data gathered by UUV 600, receiving movement instructions from the remote party, etc. Any of the various elements shown in the figures or described herein may be implemented as hardware, software, firmware, or some combination of these. For example, an element may be implemented as dedicated hardware. Dedicated hardware elements may be referred to as “processors”, “controllers”, or some similar terminology. When provided by a processor, the functions may be provided by a single dedicated processor, by a single shared processor, or by a plurality of individual processors, some of which may be shared. Moreover, explicit use of the term “processor” or “controller” should not be construed to refer exclusively to hardware capable of executing software, and may implicitly include, without limitation, digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, a network processor, application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or other circuitry, field programmable gate array (FPGA), read only memory (ROM) for storing software, random access memory (RAM), non-volatile storage, logic, or some other physical hardware component or module. Also, an element may be implemented as instructions executable by a processor or a computer to perform the functions of the element. Some examples of instructions are software, program code, and firmware. The instructions are operational when executed by the processor to direct the processor to perform the functions of the element. The instructions may be stored on storage devices that are readable by the processor. Some examples of the storage devices are digital or solid-state memories, magnetic storage media such as a magnetic disks and magnetic tapes, hard drives, or optically readable digital data storage media. Although specific embodiments were described herein, the scope is not limited to those specific embodiments. Rather, the scope is defined by the following claims and any equivalents thereof. |