Robotic Ship Hull Inspection
“Present day means for ship hull and port facility inspection require either putting divers in the water or piloting a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) over the area of interest — both of which are manpower intensive and generally cannot guarantee 100% survey coverage. The Navy would benefit from being able to automate this task, allowing for autonomous robotic inspection of its ships and port facilities for foreign objects such as limpet mines or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on a routine round-the-clock basis …” Read more here…
UM takes 1st overall in the 3rd Annual Autonomous Surface Vehicle Competition!
UM::Autonomy is a student led extracurricular project team with the University of Michigan College of Engineering. It’s composed of students of multi-disciplinary fields, encompassing NA&ME, EECS, and business management.
The team is supported by their faculty advisors, Dr. Ryan Eustice and Dr. David Singer, from the Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering department.
The purpose of the team is to design and build a water-surface vehicle capable of navigating and performing various naval operations without any human interaction. Meeting this objective requires expertise from multiple fields for tasks such as sensor integration, control system design, hull design, and funding management. ”
For more information please go to http://www.umautonomy.com
Post-Tsunami Survey: American Samoa
On September 29th, 2009, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake caused 3 waves (highest reaching almost 36ft) to crash into the island of American Samoa. The resultant damage to coastal structures, shorelines and coral reefs was the subject of a Post-Tsunami survey conducted by NA&ME Professor Julie Young and Devin Witt (NA&ME ’12). Read more here (.pdf file)…