Objective

The technical objectives of this project are to extend the functional scope of the UltraTEM Marine system and to facilitate the transition of the underlying technology to multiple companies involved in the Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP). Project MR19-5073 successfully transitioned the UltraTEM Marine technology to one company to deploy the system at MMRP sites. As a follow-on to the MR19-5073 the project team plans to expand the functional scope of the system through demonstrations under the following conditions:

  • Small-area and shallow water surveys through the provision of a self-contained steerable platform for surveying in water depths from 0.5m to 8m (0 to 24 feet).
  • Wide-area and off-shore surveys for deeper waters through the integration of the UltraTEM Marine system onto a Remote Operated Tow Vehicle (ROTV) integrated with a Heave Compensated Winch (HCW) that would enable operation in higher sea-states than was possible with the UltraTEMA system.

The objective is to provide practical and cost-effective options for utilizing Advanced Geophysical Classification (AGC) sensors in water depths from less than 1 foot to depths of several hundred feet. This follow-on project will utilize a new teaming partner who has the business model of being a technology facilitator rather than an end-user and has an extensive background in building and deploying subsea robotic and custom marine tooling.

Technology Description

This demonstration project will be executed in five separate tasks (with multiple subtasks in each task).

Task 1: Demonstration of the AGC-Remote Operate Vehicle (ROV) and/or AGC-Tow-Sled system at a shallow water test site. This system is currently under development and should have already been used on at least one production project before this project starts. The demonstration would serve two purposes. Firstly, to provide a controlled test environment to evaluate the AGC performance of the system which (in the absence of a marine equivalent to the terrestrial Defense Advanced Geophysical Classification Accreditation Program hardware validation) would demonstrate to stakeholders that the system is ready for use at impacted sites. Secondly, the testing of the AGC-ROV would build confidence in the efficiency of the project team to build the low-speed ROTV required for offshore deployment.

Task 2: Development of Automated Heave Compensated Winch (AHCW) and tow-platform for offshore deployment of the UltraTEMA marine system (AGC-Offshore system). Some parts of this task (e.g AHCW development) could be performed in parallel with Task 1.

Task 3: Extended testing of AGC-Offshore system. A series of extended tests will be performed to refine and characterize the dynamic performance of the system in offshore conditions.

Task 4: Conduct a demonstration at an offshore site with emplaced items and a blind-test grid; and Task 5: Reporting and Management.

The project team does not plan to make any substantial modifications to the UltraTEM Marine transmitter and receiver layout platform compared to what was deployed for the Sequim Bay demonstration. The project team believes that they identified an optimal set of parameters (90 Hz base-frequency and sequential firing of transmitters) during the Sequim Bay shakedown test and do not see any reason to deviate from those parameters. For the very shallow water AGC-ROV system the project team will need to reduce the size of the system and are currently planning on using two overlapping transmitters with six receiver cubes and a configuration that is very similar to the terrestrial UltraTEM portable Classifier system.

Benefits

The complete inventory of underwater DoD sites with Munitions and Explosives of Concern (MEC) is currently unknown. As with terrestrial unexploded ordnance detection and classification, an advanced marine electromagnetic induction sensor with strong dynamic classification ability has the potential to significantly reduce remediation costs through reduction in the number of items that need to be physically interrogated by divers. Based on the complexities and significant expense of underwater reacquisition of targets by divers, as well as the limited budgets available for underwater MEC project sites, it is extremely important to reduce the number of points for interrogation, and the potential for remediation of items in the marine environment. This improvement of the UltraTEM Marine system is designed to provide a cost-effective means by which these sites can be mapped in a single pass and eliminate the need for multiple surveys, while providing specific information about the extent of MEC distribution in even more challenging locations such as sites with ocean swell. This could significantly reduce clean-up costs, and potentially enable DoD to take no further action at previously suspect sites.