Delivering supplies to a submarine under water

 

Display at Museu do Expedicionário, Brazil

Photo credit: Squibb - Own work, CC BY 2.5,

From Wikimedia Commons

I find it odd that spacecraft routinely deliver supplies to the International Space Station, while there is no way to deliver supplies to a submarine under water. Is it conceivable that an underwater drone could safely dock with an under-water sub and deliver supplies? This could be a ton of enriched air to manage an emergency, medical supplies, or food. Imagine a sub receiving a hundred kilos of fresh salad, after a couple of months under water!

Such delivery may disclose the location of the sub. Hence, this may be a risky maneuver in times of conflict. However, we have heard of under-water emergencies in peace time as well.

I do not want students to worry about trying to sell a solution to the navy! It is a job for a company. However, students can experiment with underwater drone technology and do a concept demonstration. You can visit Torpedo - Wikipedia and Torpedo tube - Wikipedia to get the general background. Many subs use torpedoes that are 533 mm in diameter and about six meters in length. They weigh approximately a ton and are driven by an electrical motor. They have a range of a few kilometres. The interesting thing is that they are fired from torpedo tubes. There is a torpedo room connected to the torpedo tubes. There are doors at both ends of the torpedo tube. In principle an underwater drone should be able to dock into a modified torpedo tube! The supplies can be taken out through the torpedo room.

It might even be possible to put in a sick or injured crew member in the drone and send him to a nearby ship. These possibilities would be particularly valuable for stricken submarines that are not able to come to the surface. But, alas, I wear a 42-inch shirt, and therefore won’t fit into a drone docked inside a torpedo tube!

Now for the concept demonstration. If your college is near a waterbody, you could think of building half size replicas of torpedo tubes. You can then build underwater drones and demonstrate that they can home into a docking tube.

Srinivasan Ramani