Advanced Undersea Systems and Technology

We develop and assess innovative technology to support the U.S. Navy and Department of Defense's undersea and counter-undersea missions. Our expertise lies in acoustic and non-acoustic sensors, undersea networks, autonomous systems, and advanced signal processing. We perform rigorous systems analyses, develop system architectures, and build prototypes to test the effectiveness of new concepts, capabilities, and processing techniques. Our staff help inform the development of new systems that combine undersea concepts with concepts from other technological domains including communications, sensing, and energy systems.

Featured Video

Video of robotic prototype that can map an undersea domain.

Recently, a research team at the Laboratory’s field site on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands prototyped and demonstrated a robotic system that can map the undersea domain. With some hardware and software enhancements to a system that maps unstructured above-ground environments, they enabled the robot to determine its position and orientation (pose) in the unstructured waters of the Pacific Ocean. This undersea environment provided perfect testing conditions for a system that can attain pose without relying on GPS. This effort expanded work on a collaborative robotics program that is researching ways to improve human-machine teaming for the Office of Naval Research.

A flow chart showing how audio signals are processed to create features for algorithms to distinguish between signals from cargo, passenger, tanker, and tug ships.

undersea technology

Combining Neural Networks and Histogram Layers for Underwater Target Classification

New machine learning methods capture statistical features within sonar data to distinguish between sound sources.

A diver and autonomous underwater vehicle swim underwater to identify an object (mine).

undersea technology

Underwater PB&J: Combining Diver and Robot Strengths for Optimized Mid-Mission Teaming

New navigation and vehicle autonomy algorithms consider which tasks humans and autonomous systems respectively do best, with the goal of improving search path planning and object classification in underwater environments.

a wire in wound up in a spool. The wire appears to be cooper and has red LEDs lit up throughout it.

microelectronics

Fiber Sensor Array Buoy

A small, low-cost system that leverages long-length fibers embedded with electronics could provide persistent monitoring of the undersea environment.

an illlustration of Arctic sea ice, with yellow "links" showing connections from sensors in the ice up to a satellite.

Impact prediction

Arctic Climate Change Detection Network   

We are developing a sensor network to improve our understanding and monitoring of sea ice breakup in the rapidly changing Arctic region.

undersea technology

Autonomous High-Resolution Ocean Floor Mapping

The Laboratory is working to develop a novel seabed-mapping capability that can achieve high-resolution imaging and a fast coverage rate.

$A photo of Arctic sea ice fracturing into big chunks.$

Researchers return to Arctic to test integrated sensor nodes

Jul 9

Cadets Rodrigue and Padmanaban mount their motor to their underwater vehicle.

Laboratory staff advise Massachusetts Sea Cadets for an underwater robotics competition

Sep 5

$Ice fractures at the Great Lakes Research Center.$

In the Media

Home ice advantage: GLRC hosts MIT engineers on Huron Bay for ice fracturing research

Apr 11

Michigan Tech

More News

With the Laboratory sitting on the boundary of academia and industry, I can observe and participate in various areas of cutting-edge research and see some of that work implemented in the real world.

James Casey

Data Scientist

Air, Missile, and Maritime Defense Technology

Advanced Undersea Systems and Technology

One of the fantastic aspects of being a Laboratory employee is that there are opportunities to work on a wide variety of projects.

Benjamin Evans

Signal Processing Researcher

Air, Missile, and Maritime Defense Technology

Advanced Undersea Systems and Technology

One of the great things about the Laboratory is that you can really move around and evolve as you see fit.

David Whelihan

Undersea Systems Engineer

Air, Missile, and Maritime Defense Technology

Advanced Undersea Systems and Technology

The breakout moment of my career was participating in the development of a program that directly addresses a challenge area that I experienced while on active duty in the U.S. Navy.