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Stealthy Drone Can Hide Underwater For Months, Then Float To Surface To Take-Off (digitaltrends.com)
An anonymous reader writes from an article on DigitalTrends: After months of analysis and experimentation, a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab announced the successful development of a reliable sea-to-air UAV. Dubbed the Corrosion Resistant Aerial Covert Unmanned Nautical System -- or CRACUNS for short -- Johns Hopkins' drone has the ability to reside for months underwater without deteriorating or decaying. Once given the signal, the CRACUNS would then rise to the water's surface and begin flight, capable of undertaking a variety of missions.
In order for the drone to accomplish this, the team had to develop a body that contained no structural metal parts or machined surfaces. The composite-body had to not only be extremely lightweight, but able to be submerged in water and hold up to constant water pressure. CRACUNS project manager Jason Stipes said in a published press release, "Engineers at APL have long worked on both Navy submarine systems and autonomous UAVs. In response to evolving sponsor challenges, we were inspired to develop a vehicle that could operate both underwater and in the air."
In order for the drone to accomplish this, the team had to develop a body that contained no structural metal parts or machined surfaces. The composite-body had to not only be extremely lightweight, but able to be submerged in water and hold up to constant water pressure. CRACUNS project manager Jason Stipes said in a published press release, "Engineers at APL have long worked on both Navy submarine systems and autonomous UAVs. In response to evolving sponsor challenges, we were inspired to develop a vehicle that could operate both underwater and in the air."
It really sounds like a plot element from a James Bond movie.
#DeleteChrome
Gesundheit!
How long did it take them to come up with the acronym? Some fan of "Clash of the Titans" pretty clearly wanted to yell "Unleash the CRACUNS!"
You're just jealous 'cuz the voices talk to *me*
CRACUNS - Kraken. Get it?
Malaysian flight MH370.
CRACUNS, brought to you by the Department of Improbable but Possible Word and Acronym Development Services.
How does it stay submersed and idle if it floats?
It doesn't look like it has ballast tanks
Oh yeah, here.
Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach either, do tech support.
Wonder what the scientific merits are of this "militarish" device and if any public money was spent on it..
I've watched the videos and the motors seem submerged under water. So they were able to develop non-metalic motors?
what are you, 15? Or just American perhaps?
are going to use this to spy on us.
Unless this can park at a 500m depth, it will accumulate enough biomass to disable it in a matter of days. Also, looking at the shape of if, a simple machined aluminum hull would produce a cheaper, lighter, more durable hull, than any currently existing additive manufacturing technologies.
These guys probably haven't even tried what they claim they can do, drop it in the actual sea for months then call it back, otherwise they would know that corrosion is only half the problem. Unless the entire thing is sprayed in a toxic substance it will have all types of things growing on it after a month or two.
An enclosing pod that can alter it's buoyancy without external parts or ports would have made a lot more sense, then the drone can just launch out of the pod when it reaches the surface. The pod would then sink again so as to not leave a trace that a drone had been deployed in the area. Using a pod also gives you much more battery life as the drone does not need to carry all the standby power equipment and can maintain it's charge from the pod until launch.
If it was to sleep silently on the seafloor how does it protect itself
from colonizing creatures, sediment and detritus?
Sort of interesting...
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
you are an idiot
Once given the signal, the CRACUNS would then rise to the water's surface and begin flight, capable of undertaking a variety of missions.
First Mission: Operation Wet Willie.
How do you tell it to take off from all the way on the bottom of the sea? Carrier fish?
I hope they have some good anti fouling crap smeared all over it. In real life anything sitting in the sea for months becomes a Barnacle magnet. Basiclly it would look like one of the creatures in a recent Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
Hides out of sight and then pops out - sounds perfect.
Let's see how well it flies with a few months of barnacles growing on it.
Someone must have already used the acronym they wanted.
Theoretically, if you were willing to sink a very long, disposable antenna cable along with the drone, you could activate it by very-long-wave radio. But I doubt the durability in actual sea-water, with living creatures all around, will render the "long term sitting duck"-scenario realistic, anyway. So a "timed" or "short range via audio wave" trigger might be sufficient for realistic scenarios (like false-flag bombings of countries you just don't like).
One plastic grocery bag or nylon fish net and this thing is simply a bit more garbage in the sea.
However these thing are evolutionary: weeds today, garbage tomorrow.
Cool work.
Jules Verne would feel validated (Master of the world, 1961) but I think the military would be drooling. Imagine a weapon that can hide and change it's mode of travel; it would be almost impossible to detect or defend against. The summary doesn't mention underwater travel but it would be easy to build something which tows the drone while submerged.
So now any country will have the right to put mines in the oceans.
What if it's attached to the hull of a submarine?
They could remain deeply submerged and send up a "periscope" drone. The sub could send up an antenna buoy to receive the video signal or control the drone. Antenna buoys are already standard.
Instead of trying to find very specific materials to deal with the salt water ...
Why didn't you just put the device in an water tight container, nice and dry ... that sits on the bottom until signaled, at which point it rises to the surface, opens its lid, and out flies the dry drone.
Then you don't have to deal with all the other shit thats going to fuck with your drone and build up on it if its under water for months.
The water itself is the least of your concerns. Over a 3 month period, the salt corrosion isn't going to really be that big of a deal if you're completely submerged (less free oxygen), but the animals that attach themselves to it, build nests in/around/on it, try to eat it, shat on it, bury it ... Those are the things to actually be concerned about.
Rusting takes a little longer than 2 or 3 months.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
There are, and have been for a long time, anti-ship mines which lie quietly at the bottom of the sea until a signal (usually sonic, which is easier to propogate than E-M under water) tells the container to open, and up pops the mine. The only difference here is that the popping-up part reaches the surface and goes airborne. Well, that and they appear not to have wanted to bother encasing the payload in a long-term 'survival' case.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
This drone would also need to be able to keep barnacles, oysters, starfish, plant growth and drifting seaweed off of its surfaces in order to have any ability to fly well. Corrosion is just one issue to be overcome.
Will that drone be used to rescue people sunken under water?
Hmmm, if tube launched so they could be quietly deployed; great tactical advantage there.
NRRPT/RCT