U.S. Navy employs fully-realistic shark drone

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Drawing inspiration from the movie Jaws, the US Navy is developing a realistic, shark-like reconnaissance drone capable of operating virtually unnoticed in depths of up to 300 feet.
The unit is known as the GhostSwimmer, and according to Wired, it is five feet in length, weighs approximately 100 pounds and can be either controlled remotely or allowed to swim independently. The robot has both dorsal and pectoral fins, and not only does it look like a fish, but it moves like a fish in order to allow it to travel without being detected.
In addition to being able to “spook the bejeezus out of any beach goer who’s familiar with Jaws,” GhostSwimmer is part of an ongoing Navy project to use biomimicry to create unmanned underwater vehicles, and military officials said testing of its design wrapped up late last week.
In addition to being able to reach depth of 300 feet, GhostSwimmer can function in water as shallow as 10 inches. The Navy hopes to use it on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. Ultimately, it could also replace the trained bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions currently used to recover equipment and spot underwater mines.
According to CNET, GhostSwimmer was developed as part of the Silent NEMO program, which the Navy described as an experiment exploring the possible use of unmanned, underwater, biomimetic vehicles as part of its fleet. Silent NEMO is a program which allows junior leaders to harness emerging technologies to address some of the Navy’s most pressing challenges.
“GhostSwimmer will allow the Navy to have success during more types of missions while keeping divers and sailors safe,” Michael Rufo, director of Boston Engineering’s Advanced Systems Group (the company that developed the robot) said last week in a Navy-issued statement. “The unit is a combination of unmanned systems engineering and unique propulsion and control capabilities.”
“This project and others that we are working on… are important because we are harnessing the brainpower and talents of junior Sailors,” added Capt. Jim Loper, department head for Concepts and Innovation at the Navy Warfare Development Command (NWDC). “The opportunity for a young sailor who has a good idea to get that idea heard, and to get it turned into action, is greater [now] than any other time in our Navy’s history.”
Among the other biomimetic machines being developed by the US military are the Cheetah, which is capable of running at speeds of nearly 30mph, the gecko-like Stickybot and the coackroach-inspired iSprawl. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security has reportedly been funding development of a smaller but similar robot known as the BIOSwimmer.
“Our mantra is ‘you have permission to be creative.’ We want our people to go out there and dream big dreams and put them into action,” Loper added. “We want to see projects like this replicated throughout the fleet. The fusion of the deckplate brainpower with support of the most senior leadership in the Navy is going to keep us moving forward throughout the 21st century.”
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