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Naval Facilities Engineering Command Successfully Tests Ship-to-Ship Cargo Handling System

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS050616-06
Release Date: 6/16/2005 10:19:00 AM

From Naval Facilities Engineering Command Public Affairs

PORT HUENEME, Calif. (NNS) -- During the week of May 20, the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) completed successful at-sea testing of the quarter-scale Automated Logistics (AutoLog) cargo handling system, which is designed to move cargo from ship to ship during heavy seas.

The system is being developed under a Small Business Innovative Research contract awarded to SEICOR International, under the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research. The government-contractor team performed the testing aboard NAVFAC’s Motor Vessel (M/V) Independence off the coast of Port Hueneme, Calif.

"The AutoLog system has the potential to revolutionize the way the Navy transfers sea-based cargo,” said Capt. William J. Beary, commanding officer, Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center (NFESC), the local NAVFAC command managing the AutoLog project. “With AutoLog, the fleet will have greater flexibility to conduct operations through a broad spectrum of sea conditions. Transfer operations will also be safer, faster and more responsive to the logistics requirements of forces ashore."

For safety reasons, conventional ship cranes cannot accomplish ship-to-ship cargo handling operations in seas greater than sea state 2, particularly when offloading cargo from a ship deck to an adjacent lighter/barge. In sea state 2, winds are at least nine knots, with waves at least one-and-a-half feet high. According to the Defense Science Board, finding a solution to this cargo handling challenge is one of the three critical technological issues that must be solved for the Navy to implement Sea Basing, one of the key pillars of the Chief of Naval Operations’ Sea Power 21 strategy.

Instead of a moving crane boom, AutoLog employs four fixed ‘telemasts,’ each equipped with a winch and cable, located on the starboard and port sides of a ship deck. The four cables from each telemast meet at a common spreader, which is the device used to pick up a cargo container. Using robotics controls, the four cables can be differentially moved to stabilize the spreader and container in a spatial frame of reference, independent of ship movement. In contrast, a conventional crane has a suspended load dangling from a crane boom and is subject to ship movement as it is buffeted by sea swells.

NFESC has played a major technical role in the development of the quarter-scale system, including designing and fabricating the major structural components and supporting test events on land and sea. Leading the testing has been AutoLog visionary Dr. Dave Cannon, an engineering professor from Pennsylvania State University, who is also project manager for SEICOR. Cannon started the telerobotics work instrumental to AutoLog during his Ph.D. dissertation at Stanford University in the 1980s, and has helped guide it through several scaled prototypes, leading to the current quarter-scale version.

NFESC conducted land-based system testing in December 2004. The at-sea testing performed last month included moving a quarter-scale container from a fixed ship location to a target area on a lighter alongside the ship. Numerous tests were performed, resulting in the majority of landings being within one foot of the target area - despite the amplified heave, yaw and other unconstrained motions of the unballasted lighter, which simulated a ballasted ship platform in high sea state conditions.

With completion of sea-based testing using the quarter-scale system, the AutoLog team is now developing a full-scale prototype using a lightweight load that is scheduled for testing in Summer 2006. The team is also working with Tomahawk missile logisticians at Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme, to evaluate and test the reloading of Vertical Launching Systems (VLS) at sea.

Sea Basing is the rapid deployment, assembly, command, projection, reconstitution and re-employment of joint combat power from the sea, while providing continuous support, sustainment and force protection to select expeditionary joint forces without reliance on land bases within the joint operating area. The essence of Sea Basing is that U.S. military forces sent to world trouble spots typically will no longer establish beachheads or huge headquarters operations. All of those facilities and functions - and more - will be moved from land to a sea base at least 25 miles offshore.