Current Projects

Flying Fish

Flying Fish

The MHL is currently working on a project for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop an autonomous buoy for persistent surveillance in the open ocean. The vehicle, which we call the "U of M Flying Fish," is a collaborative effort with faculty from the MHL, Aerospace Engineering and EECS Departments, and has given us the opportunity to pull together a great team. The idea of this autonomous vehicle is that it quietly drifts to the edge of its watch circle, harnessing and harvesting energy from sun, wind, and waves as it drifts. Once it reaches the edge, it takes off like a seabird and flies to the other side of the circle where it autonomously lands and begins the drift cycle again. For a small vehicle like this, most waves look like those in the "the perfect storm." By flying over them we minimize energy used in transit, maintain a long-term energy balance (i.e. no refueling required), and give more time for sensor operations without noise from the vehicle. We envision fleets of these vehicles deployed for a variety of environmental monitoring applications.

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