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Robotics in Quincy, Mass. ture is modular down to the very lowest ing with respect to the enormous effort “It’s vital to be thinking ‘modular’ level so that we don’t have to redesign that is behind making it work. As an from the very beginning, so that when the vehicle for every different mission.” example, the current USB speci? cation the time comes to adapt to a different The concept of modularity, and plug- is several hundred pages long and the mission or payload you don’t ? nd your- and-play, is not as simple as it sounds, evolutionary product of over 22 years of self ? ghting against design decisions said consultant Mike Good. “We had a work across many industry players,” he that only work for one.” lot of people tell us that they had systems says. “And that’s just the paperwork for

Blue? n, which was an MIT spinoff that were ready to use ‘off the shelf.’ the agreed upon interface standard, not in 1997 and was acquired by General But many weren’t at the technical ma- the ? nal product itself.”

Dynamics Mission Systems earlier this turity level they claimed,” Good said. Good, a retired Navy captain and for- year, has integrated hundreds of differ- “These systems have to be tested in a mer program manager for LCS mission ent payloads into its vehicles, Butler rigorous environment – as a stand-alone modules, says that in conversations with said. system, and then as a system-of-systems OPNAV and Congressional staffs, he’s

Butler points out that while the Knife- (SoS). Integrating multiple systems into found that the signi? cant effort behind ? sh mine countermeasures UUV is a a new capability is much harder than integration is not well understood – and highly specialized instantiation of the most people realize.” almost always undervalued – which company’s Blue? n 21 vehicle, it was Good said we’ve become used to the leads to it being under resourced. the fundamentally modular design of idea with our computers and USB con- “That drives us to ‘standalone’ capa- the parent Blue? n 21 vehicle that made nections. “But the simplicity of a USB bilities. We don’t get the more powerful specialization possible. “Our architec- thumb drive to the user can be mislead- results we could with integrated ones.”

U.S. Navy Lt. j.g. Jeff Morehead (left) and Electronics Technician 2nd Class William Stark, with

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 5, pull a MK18 Mod 2 unmanned underwater vehicle onto a tow sled at Jinhae-gu, Republic of Korea (ROK) March 31, 2016 during exercise

Foal Eagle 2016.

(U.S. Navy combat camera photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Charles E. White/Released) www.marinetechnologynews.com

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