NRT-LEAD > Research Thrusts > Underwater

Underwater

Working Where Humans Cannot

TheNaval Underwater Warfare Center (NUWC) Keyport Division is the Navy’s full-spectrum research center located ten miles from one of our campuses in Bremerton, WA. NUWC has formed an alliance with WSU researchers to train graduate students to meet the growing need for faster, longer-range and more agile unmanned marine vehicles (UMV), especially for the unforgiving underwater domain where human involvement is unsafe or negatively affects system capabilities due to habitability requirements. NRT-LEAD team members are currently working on underwater, surface, and multi-domain vehicles equipped with propulsors, actuators, sensors and control system, and have begun the development of bio-inspired flexible aquatic propulsors since marine animals often demonstrate higher speed and efficiency and better maneuvering capabilities than traditional autonomous underwater vehicles. Our researchers are currently working on following projects related to underwater robotics:

  • Design and Development of Bio-Inspired Aquatic Propulsors (Dr. K. Matveev)
  • Development and Control of Eel-Inspired Electronics-Free Soft Robots (Dr. N. Perez)
  • 3D-Printed Soft Robots with Biomimetic Shark skin (Dr. K. Qiu)