A group of German research and technology companies have developed a concept for a new type of work vessel that takes the best out of the submarine world and a surface vessel. It is called the Modified Underwater Mothership, or MUM.
The project has been funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy with THyssen Krupp Berlin Technical University, theUniversity of Rostock, Atlas Elekronik and EvoLogics working togethe ro the project.
They announced this week they are working to further develop the Large Modifiable Underwater Mothership with the three year funding from the German government.
They say that MUM is breaking with old conventions:
“The modular, unmanned underwater vehicle performs its tasks largely autonomously. Its unique modular design enables the new vehicle class to be customized cost-efficiently for each mission. Individual base modules can be freely combined with specific mission modules to form large systems, enabling even unusual and highly specialized tasks to be performed quickly and easily. Possible activities range from payload transportation and operations to research missions and stationary deep-sea tasks. This makes the new underwater vehicle ideal for industrial use in the areas
of offshore energy and deep-sea mining as well as other applications, for example in maritime science.
“The world’s oceans present a wide range of tasks and questions that cannot yet be addressed because we don’t have the appropriate vehicles and systems. MUM offers a wealth of new options for industrial marine engineering and scientific ocean research. We will equip the floating, wireless underwater vehicle with an air-independent fuel cell
propulsion system. Our goal is to develop a vehicle which allows diving depths of up to 5,000 meters and continuous operation for several weeks,” says Marc Schiemann, project manager at thyssenkrupp Marine Systems.
Fathom-news.com
