A Conceptual Framework for a Human-Supervised Dual-UUV System for Autonomous Maritime Surveillance
Context
Traditional maritime surveillance often lacks the flexibility to ethically differentiate between threats in real-time without immediate human presence.
Research Problem
Traditional maritime surveillance systems often struggle to balance stealthy detection with active response, especially in environments requiring strict ethical oversight. Existing autonomous solutions often lack the "Human-in-the-loop" gating necessary for non-lethal compliance.
Proposed System Architecture
Proposed a split-architecture system: one passive UUV for stealthy detection and a separate active UUV for response, both gated by a mandatory human-in-the-loop control protocol.
Core Technical Areas
- ■Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV)
- ■Passive Acoustic Detection
- ■Sensor Fusion (EKF)
- ■Human-in-the-loop Control
Key Contributions
- ✓Designed system architecture separating detection and response into two specialized platforms.
- ✓Defined detection, localization using Extended Kalman Filters (EKF), and underwater communication frameworks.
- ✓Proposed a strict ethical compliance model requiring human authorization for any active response.
- ✓Theoretical performance analysis of sensor fusion combining IMU, pressure sensing, and acoustics.
⚠ Limitations & Ethical Considerations
This is a strictly theoretical framework. No physical prototype was built, and the system is designed explicitly for non-lethal, surveillance-only applications with human oversight.
What I Learned
- ●Deepened understanding of autonomous navigation and sensor fusion challenges underwater.
- ●Learned to design systems with ethical constraints as a core architectural requirement.
- ●Studied underwater acoustic communication limitations (bandwidth/latency).
Read the Paper
Full theoretical analysis, localization math, and communication protocols.
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