EFFECT OF UPGRADES ON THE RELIABILITY OF THE AUTOSUB AUV

摘要

After the Autosub autonomous underwater vehicle had completed a 2-year series of science research missions in 2001 an extensive upgrade programme was undertaken to prepare the vehicle for three campaigns under floating polar ice shelves in 2002-4. The reliability of the vehicle had been assessed and documented prior to the upgrades by examining the instances of high-impact faults when the vehicle was underway. This paper examines what affect the programme of upgrades had on the vehicle and on its reliability. While many of the problems that were encountered were due to the new hardware and software, the most serious faults arose from the need to dive deeper than had previously been the norm. This need brought to light deficiencies in the wet-matable connectors used throughout the vehicle. Following a statistical analysis of the faults, a test programme is proposed to re-establish confidence in the vehicle.