Fun with Drones: Autonomous Undersea Vehicles Operating Cooperatively

The Ocean News headline understates the import of the exercise in Iver3-AUV Plays Active Role in Unmanned Warrior (UW) 2016

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Multiple Iver AUVs were put in active roles by members of the Royal Navy, US Navy and the Defense Research and Development Canada (DRDC). The Iver-3 systems were used in a segment of Unmanned Warrior known as Hell Bay, during which groups of underwater vehicles demonstrate how they collaborate to carry out autonomous tasks like target location and recognition.

Several of the Iver3 AUVs were equipped with SeeByte Neptune, an open architecture enabling autonomous multivehicle collaboration. Designed to enhance Mine Counter-Measure (MCM) missions, the system offers launch and recovery software management, water column flight management, static and dynamic exclusion zones, survey and re-acquire tasks, and real-time progress and status monitoring. The Iver3 MCM systems come equipped with high resolution side-scan sonar, RDI Explorer DVL w/ADCP, WHOI Micro modem, Iridium Communications and an operator console.
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The ON report is based on a Iver3-AUV manufacturer, OceanServer press release.

This is very cool stuff. Autonomous cooperation and deconfliction of the water space are vital for future ops.

More, please.