Under-the-Hull Diver Location System: Report of Test Results

摘要

The Supervisor of Diving and Salvage (NAVSEA OOC) funded the Ocean Technology Division of the Naval Ocean Research and Development Activity (NORDA) to conduct a competitive selection and demonstration of commercially produced, field-proven, acoustic tracking equipment that could be used as an Under-the-Hull Diver Location System (UHDLS). After competition, NORDA selected two contractors that produce commercially available acoustic position and tracking equipment to demonstrate their equipment experimentally in a test environment. The equipment was demonstrated in three environments: a pool, a lock, and a dockside under the vessel 'Pearl River.' The demonstration determined that both systems could track a diver in the highly reverberant, multipath environment under the hull of a ship. The accuracy with which they could track the diver and the maturity of the software to present the results were the major differences. One system demonstrated used a general-purpose computer, and the other used a personal computer for the Diver Supervisor Display Unit. A Diver Supervisor Display Unit capable of withstanding the environment that would be encountered aboard ship would have to be developed for UHDLS. This report recommends that option 3 (adaption of underwater tracking equipment to a limited capability UHDLS in accordance with reference 3) of the demonstration contract be exercised to procure the Sonardyne equipment. This action will effectively procure the development of the Diver Supervisor Display Unit with menu-driven software for the unit.