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What we have set out to do is as ambitious as it is simple:
couple our extensive AUV design and operational experience
with the best technology developed by the MIT AUV Laboratory
and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institution to create
the most capable autonomous underwater vehicles in the world.
With this goal in mind, simple and robust solutions, that
are adopted from standard underwater engineering practice
or purchased off the shelf, are always emphasized. We continue
to produce effective and serviceable vehicles for our customers
in the commercial, military, and scientific communities. In
the current design of our vehicles, Bluefin carries through
its emphasis on reliability and field ruggedness, while making
improvements in the key areas of flexibility and performance.
Our vehicles are instruments of unprecedented configurability,
efficiency, and quietness.
The Bluefin team has always taken the harder road when it
came to AUV design. Right from the early beginnings at the
MIT lab we have worked hard to create a deep-water capability
by finding smart solutions and not growing the vehicle in
size. In the new Bluefin AUV, the twenty million dollar design
effort is clearly paying of. The modern electronics are much
smaller than competitive systems. This results in a less power
and a less electronic interference.
The Bluefin AUV is a factor of five smaller than that of similar
systems in the market. It was not easy to achieve this. In
several areas we had to come up with new innovative solutions
to meet our goal of efficient packaging while accommodating
high quality sonar. We attribute a large part of the success
to our design strategy:
1) Build on a solid base of experience.
2) Identify the right economic drivers.
3) Exploit the advantages of small vehicles.
4) Use the finest sensors.
5) Create the navigation tools others dream of.
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