The Development of Autonomous Underwater （自治水下的发展）.pdf

The Development of Auton omous Und erwater Vehicles (AUV); A Brief Summary D. Richard Blidberg, (blidberg@ausi,org) Autonomous Undersea Systems Institute, Lee New Hampshire, USA Introduction The concept of a submersible vehicle is not a new idea. The first American submarine was called “Turtle.” It was built at Saybrook, Connecticut in 1775 by David Bushnell and his brother, Ezra. The Turtle was a little egg-shaped wooden submarine held together by iron straps. Turtle bobbed like a cork in rough surface winds and seas even though she was lead weighted at the bottom. In this hand and foot-operated contraption, one person could descend by operating a valve to admit water into the ballast tank and ascend with the use of pumps to eject the water. Two flap-type air vents at the top opened when the hatch was clear of water and closed when it was as not. The air supply lasted only 30 minutes. The Turtles first engagement, which took place in New York Harbor in 1776, was also the first naval battle in history involving a submarine. [Pararas] In November of 1879, the Reverend George W. Garrett designed, what was considered by some to be the worlds first practical powered submarine, the “Resurgam.” It was built at the Brittannia Engine Works and Foundry of J. B. Cochran in Birkenhead, England and was powered by a Lamm fireless steam engine, and could travel for some ten hours on power stored in an insulated tank. After these historic underwater vehicles, there have been many more submersibles developed and used operationally for a number of different tasks. With these submarines, came the development of torpedoes. Torpedoes are truly the first (AUVs) Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. Although there are a number of AUV-like systems that were considered prior to the 1970s, most never were used for extended period