Characteristics of a maritime interdiction operations unmanned ground vehicle

Abstract

The U.S. Navy conducts thousands of Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIOs) every year around the globe. Navy Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) teams regularly board suspect ships and perform search operations, often in hostile environments. There is a need for a small tactical robot that can be deployed ahead of the team to provide enhanced situational awareness in these boarding, breaching, and clearing operations. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific) performed a market survey, identified and obtained a number of throwable robots that may be useful in these situations, and conducted user evaluations with Navy VBSS team members, taking each of these robots through all applicable steps of the VBSS operation in realistic training environments. From these tests, we verified the requirements and defined the key performance parameters for an MIO robot. This paper describes the tests conducted and the identified characteristics of this robot.