Patent attributes
A combined autonomous underwater vehicle and buoy device that may travel underwater in a horizontal orientation as an underwater glider to a desired location and then, at the desired location, move into a vertical orientation and operate as a buoy. The combined autonomous underwater vehicle and buoy device includes an elongated device body having a ballast tank, a plurality of fins, and a deployable weight. While in water, the device body may operate the ballast tank to selectively increase its buoyancy to cause vertical descent and decrease its buoyancy to cause vertical ascent, with the fins generating lift that moves the device body horizontally from this vertical motion. To move to the vertical orientation, the device body may reposition the deployable weight to adjust the center of mass of the device body sufficiently to cause the device body to move from the horizontal orientation to the vertical orientation.
