Advancing Deep Sea Operations for Unmanned Vehicles

16.03.2016
In October 2015 a consortium of UK companies and academic partners, led by Steatite began an R&D project to develop a battery pack that will be pressure tolerant up to depths of 6000 metres. Due for completion in October 2017, the project is looking to exploit the inherent benefits of Lithium-Sulfur battery technology. This presents some major advances for Marine Autonomous Systems looking to improve on neutral buoyancy, higher levels of safety and higher energy densities, delivering greater speeds, endurance and payloads.


Phase One Results
The first phase of the project, recently completed at NOC in Southampton, involved repeatedly testing Lithium-Sulfur cells at pressures and temperatures equivalent to undersea depths of 6,000m. The test results have confirmed that the cell performance is unaffected by being exposed to these extreme conditions, with consistent delivery of energy.



Summary of project milestone so far include:
•Repeated cycling of Lithium-Sulfur cells under conditions replicating a depth of 6000m show consistent energy delivery performance
•No internal damage or adverse effects on the chemistry of the cells is detected
•Production of hardware and software for the associated battery management system is now underway.



Using the test facilities at the NOC, Li-S cells underwent multiple pressure, temperature and discharge cycles. Subsequent analysis showed that there were no adverse effect to the internal structure to the cell.

The project’s aim is to build and demonstrate a Lithium-Sulfur system in the flooded compartment of an autonomous vehicle. The next phase of the project will complete the design work for a trial battery pack including a pressure-tolerant Battery Management System.

Location: UK









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