MULTI-UUV MISSIONS USING RANGER MicroUUVs

Groups of four UUVs have been used to validate a plume source localization algorithm and map the 3-D movement of a salinity front over time. These missions have demonstrated that not only are multi-vehicle deployments possible, but by using teams of cooperating vehicles, difficult tasks such as plume source localization can be performed quickly and that small volumes of the ocean can be simultaneously sampled with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. The key to the success of these missions is the small, inexpensive and easy to operate Ranger MicroUUV from Nekton Research. We report on the results of recent multi-agent missions and provide information about the UUVs used during these missions.