Micro-Hydraulic Pump for Supercavitating Vehicle Control

The US Navy has become interested in the development of supercavitating vehicles for numerous underwater missions due to their tremendous speed and potential for extreme maneuvering. In order to facilitate these performance characteristics, a sophisticated, high-bandwidth fin actuation and control scheme is necessary. In this Phase II SBIR, a team led by NextGen Aeronautics, Inc., and including PSU/ARL and Dr. Chris Lynch, proposes the application of piezohydraulic pump systems to provide the necessary performance for a supercavitating underwater vehicle. This technology, which has been undergoing development for some time within DARPA’s CHAP program, has been further advanced for flight applications by NextGen in a follow-on project called FAT-CHAP. This SBIR represents a furthering of that technology for operation in a supercavitating vehicle with substantial enhancements beyond what has been demonstrated to date. In pursuit of this goal, the NextGen team will advance the application of high-speed servovalves and a valveless displacement amplification hydraulic ram design, for which a hardware demonstration articles have previously been fabricated and tested.