Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Architecture Synthesis for Shipwreck Interior Exploration
Masters thesis — Naval Postgraduate School, 2015. Full text: https://archive.org/details/autonomousunderw1094547940
Mechanisms
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Architecture Synthesis for Shipwreck Interior Exploration
Sunken wrecks like Komsomolets — a nuclear reactor and torpedoes on the seafloor — are intelligence and environmental targets that no human diver or existing robot can safely penetrate.
No existing AUV can penetrate a shipwreck's interior; the thesis synthesizes the WIEVLE (wreck interior exploration vehicle) architecture — functional analysis, requirements, key performance parameters, and tradeoff analysis against DEPTHX, HAUV, ARROWS, and ACQUAS — using the sunken Soviet nuclear submarine Komsomolets as the design reference mission, including hypothetical intelligence-collection targets.
Why it matters
Sunken wrecks like Komsomolets — a nuclear reactor and torpedoes on the seafloor — are intelligence and environmental targets that no human diver or existing robot can safely penetrate.
Use when: Design from the mission, not the platform — starting with the Komsomolets reference mission and its intel targets is what exposed the five capability gaps in every existing AUV.