Event
Special Aerospace Seminar: The AUV Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Monday, November 10, 2014
10:00 a.m.
Pepco Room, Kim Building
Derek Paley
dpaley@umd.edu
Special Aerospace Seminar: The AUV Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Speaker: Josh Elvander
Program Manager, Bluefin Robotics
When: 10 AM, Monday November 10, 2014
Where: Pepco Room, Kim Building
Host: Derek Paley
Abstract: In early March 2014, Bluefin Robotics completed a final acceptance trial of a 4500-meter-rated AUV for Phoenix International Holdings, an international marine services contractor that specializes in complicated subsea search and recovery. The acceptance trial completed offshore Hawaii on 11 March 2014, three days after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared. The Phoenix/Bluefin team was uniquely qualified to support the search for the missing Boeing aircraft, operating both the AUV and a towed pinger-locator system used to find submerged aircraft data recorders. The team had barely returned to the Phoenix office in Maryland when it was sent to Perth, Australia, to prepare for the MH370 search. Over the next eight weeks the team of Phoenix and Bluefin engineers and technicians, in collaboration with the Australian Defense Forces, deployed the AUV 20 times to collect sonar data of close to 900 square kilometers of seabed, in an ultimately unsuccessful search for the airplane. The search continues. The presentation will go over some of the high points of the mission and the challenges and on-the-fly solutions required.
Speaker Bio: Josh Elvander is a program manager for Bluefin Robotics, a commercial develop of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and subsea power solutions. He has led a variety of efforts to develop and deliver advanced technologies to academic, military, government and commercial customers. Mr. Elvander is the program manager of two large survey vehicles: a synthetic-aperture-sonar-equipped AUV for the US Navy capable of surveying 6nm2/day at 1-inch resolution; and a commercial AUV with a multibeam, sidescan sonar and sub-bottom profiler for broad area, low-resolution search and survey. The commercial AUV was used in a 2012 search for Amelia Earhart’s aircraft and the 2014 search for the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 Boeing 777. Prior to joining Bluefin Robotics, Mr. Elvander spent 10 years in aerospace working on high-energy propulsion concepts for NASA, including the Space Shuttle Main Engine and several ramjet and scramjet concepts. He is a 1994 graduate of the University of Maryland (BSAE) and 1997 graduate of the University of Washington (MS Aeronautics and Astronautics).
