March 25, 2007
Drone From Stevens Lab Will Patrol in the Hudson
By JOHN HOLL
HOBOKEN
SOMETIME in May a group of scientists and researchers from the Stevens Institute of Technology here will drop an unmanned underwater vehicle into the Hudson River.
The device is 4 feet long and weighs 12 pounds. It is powered by a battery lasting four to five hours and is linked to Stevens computer software. The vehicle will monitor and forecast currents and search for environmental and chemical changes in the water as it roams, as deep as 10 feet underwater.
If all goes well, the vehicle could one day be used to prevent terrorist attacks on harbors or on naval vessels like the one in 2000 in Yemen against the United States destroyer Cole. It was rammed by an explosives-laden skiff, and 17 sailors were killed.
“Before Sept. 11, there was not any real concentration to protect the ports,” said Thomas D. Barnes, a retired Navy captain who heads the maritime security laboratory at Stevens. “In fact, the last real security upgrades happened during World War II.”
Now, Captain Barnes said, the Office of Naval Research is playing catch-up with the help of universities and research centers like Stevens. The unmanned underwater vehicle project is just one that Stevens is conducting for the Office of Naval Research, which oversees science and technology programs for the Navy and the Marine Corps.
The underwater vehicle is a drone that can patrol open waters or a confined space in a port or harbor in an effort to protect ships and docks. It can detect other vessels, oil slicks or chemical agents and send warnings to a central location via wireless and cellular signals.
Since 1935, Stevens has been home to the Center for Maritime Systems, a laboratory for graduate students that has created and improved on nautical technologies like creating faster boats and developing sonar technology. The lab also worked on the Apollo space program, testing the capsules’ ability to float in water after re-entry.
The campus, on the banks of the Hudson with sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline, is an ideal spot to conduct nautical tests.
The Office of Naval Research projects at Stevens are not classified, but Captain Barnes speaks with discretion about specific aspects of the antiterrorist technology he and his 10 students are working on. “Basically, we’re looking at several ways of neutralizing an underwater threat,” he said.
Another project involves testing ships so they can better withstand explosions and to lengthen the time it takes them to sink.
The research inside the Davidson Laboratory, home to the maritime systems program at Stevens, is not all related to the military. The students are also working on projects for the America’s Cup yacht race, paid for by grants and donations.
But military research is important to the lab. Stevens has received $13 million in grants over the last three years from the Office of Naval Research.
Each year the office spends $630 million on research programs at colleges and universities around the country, said Patricia L. Gruber, director of research at the agency. Projects include advanced water purifiers, mathematics data mining, and creating video games to help soldiers recover from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“They are really doing the necessary basic research that helps the Navy and Marine Corps continue to sustain their mission,” Dr. Gruber said. “These programs also help to develop the next generation of scientists and engineers that help us grow as a country.”
Captain Barnes, who joined Stevens in 2003, said that when he looks at the Hudson, especially in summer, and sees the container ships, sailboats, kayaks and cruise liners, he is a little frightened.
“If there is a bad guy out there, we wouldn’t know it,” he said. “There are a lot of boats and lots of potential for terrible things to happen.”
Captain Barnes says such thoughts fuel him and his team in their work to ensure that potential threats never become reality.
“I don’t want to be a pessimistic person,” he said, “but it’s my job.”
