Autonomous seafloor geotechnical property sensor Navy SBIR FY2006.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2006.2 Topic No.: N06-160 Topic Title: Autonomous seafloor geotechnical property sensor Proposal No.: N062-160-0148 Firm: Omni Technologies, Inc. P O Box 766 Slidell, Louisiana 70459-0766 Contact: Sean Griffin Phone: (228) 813-1800 Web Site: www.otiengineering.com Abstract: Omni Technologies, Inc. (OTI) is proposing to develop an autonomous, geotechnical survey tool for mapping marine sediment properties. Our approach is to leverage one of the available man-portable autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and develop an instrument capable of surveying a wide area. OTI proposes to combine a geotechnical instrument(s) with an acoustic sub-bottom profiler to combine large area coverage with accurate results. OTI will develop the sub-bottom profiler for a man-portable AUV based on our experience building medium size AUV profiler systems. While sub-bottom profilers coupled with sidescan sonar provide wide coverage of the seafloor, sediment classification from these acoustic data requires ground truth using geotechnical measurements. OTI will investigate various geotechnical sensors that can be autonomously deployed from a small AUV to obtain sediment shear strength at locations determined autonomously by the AUV during the survey. Reliable estimations of shear strength have been obtained with penetrometers, making them the leading candidate for our sensor package. Additional parameters (grain size, porosity, etc.) would be also be helpful and OTI will investigate alternative or additional sensors during Phase I. Benefits: The benefits of this development are first and foremost to the U.S. Navy Mine Warfare community since the proposed work will provide a means of obtaining the sediment properties necessary to effectively hunt and sweep ocean bottom mines. This information will be obtained covertly and from a long standoff distance in the approach OTI is proposing. In addition, the proposed system will easily provide support to NOAA and the Coast Guard for obtaining data in U.S. Ports and Harbors for Homeland Security and environmental work. Commercially the system will be capable of supporting petroleum and telecommunications companies by providing sediment properties needed for cable and pipeline laying and inspection. The proposed system will be more economical in most cases than using the same instruments on large ships. Return