PHOTO BY KAWAKAHI AMINA, USINDOPACOM
U.S. Army dive team members pause for a photo during training on the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory’s Multifunctional Assessment Reconnaissance Vessel II in New Jersey in May 2019. With just two weeks of instruction, divers were able to assemble and pilot the MARV II, draw a diagram of a damaged pile-supported marine structure, and extract sonar and LIDAR data for a complete structural assessment.
MULTIFUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT RECONNAISSANCE VESSEL ALLOWS FOR REMOTE SURVEY OF MARINE STRUCTURES BY CAROL C. COLEMAN, ERDC
T
ime is a major factor in any contingency operation, especially when it comes to securing ports in order to transport personnel, supplies, and equipment. When a pier or marine structure is damaged, it can cause catastrophic delays. In some cases, repairing these structures can be dangerous work for U.S. Army and U.S. Navy dive teams, as the surrounding environment may be hostile or extremely hazardous.
A team of researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL), led by principal investigator Thad Pratt and including co-principal investigator William Butler and research engineers Jonathan Marshall and David Nguyen, have developed and improved a prototype Multifunctional Assessment Reconnaissance Vessel that allows for remote survey of pile-supported marine structures. Operators can 129
