The field of autonomous, fuel-celled motor vehicles has been a hot topic for quite some time now. With many of the big car manufacturers including GM Motors, Toyota, and Nissan jumping on board it will not be long before an autonomous vehicle is just as widely used as traditional motors. We also see autonomous unmanned missions in planes, with several world records in place already. But, what about using this technology in the sea?
General Motors have just signed a contract with the Office of Naval Research and the U.S Naval Research Laboratory to bring this technology more closely to the sea and are looking to develop a fleet of unmanned undersea vehicles (UUV’s) to be used by the Navy. The aim of this partnership is to use the technology that is already available to design more fuel efficient options for Naval facilities.
Using GM’s long-standing research around this topic, the Navy will be seeking to produce UUV’s that can withstand the rough waters of the sea and have high enough endurance levels for it to be able to operate for weeks if not months at a time. So far, according to Karen Swider-Lyons, head of the Navy Research Laboratory’s (NRL) Chemistry Division of its Alternative Energy Section, they are yet to find a suitable application that it wanted to apply to their underwater drones.
However, the Navy are certain that they want to use fuel cells rather than batteries for their development as they are reliable and can be refilled quickly, unlike batteries that can take hours to recharge and are lightweight in comparison also. Although one solution has not yet been found for the Navy, the search will continue through GM’s fuel cell research to develop an end product that will be energy efficient. And with the Department of Defence allowing $600 million in its budget for the development of these UUV’s, you can be sure this is not the last we will be hearing of them.
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