Terradepth, Inc.

Kenneth L Childress

Judson A Kauffman

David L Pearson

Andrew Resnick

Josef Wolfel

Paul W Holzer

Joseph Curcio

An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) may include a fuel cell charging system including a power generation subsystem having an air breathing subsystem taking intake air from the external atmosphere, a supply of compressed hydrogen in onboard storage tanks, an air-breathing PEMFC receiving the intake air and hydrogen, the PEMFC operable to produce electric energy and generating waste water, a water removal system for discharging the waste water offboard, and the fuel cell charging system having a power storage subsystem including a chargeable battery subsystem to receive electric energy to charge the chargeable battery subsystem. A system manager of an onboard data processing system may be configured to control the fuel cell charging system.

Fuel cell charging system with air breathing capability, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) system including same, and method of use

A system to perform marine surveying may include a pair of identical design autonomous marine survey vehicles configured for coordinated operations. The vehicles may navigate and transit from a launch location to a geographically distant designated survey location, continuously survey and transit to a designated recovery location. A pair of vehicles may operate interchangeably at the sea surface, semi-submerged and underwater. Each may generate energy when operating at the surface and store energy in a rechargeable battery to power vehicle operation. The payload may include a sensor system to acquire seabed sensor data. A data storage system may store the sensor data. An on-board payload quality control system may analyze data validity. Positioning when the vehicle is collecting seabed sensor data may be determined with high precision, to provide survey data of high precision.

Autonomous surface and subsurface marine vehicle survey system, marine vehicle for same, and method of use

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Camano Island, WA, United States of America

Kenneth L Childress