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Underwater Research Aims To Improve Port Security Near, Far

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By RICHARD MULLINS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 28, 2008

TAMPA - Last weekend, a team of researchers drove a small boat into Tampa Bay and dropped two massive decoy bombs near bridge pilings and port docks. The U.S. Navy, working with the experiment, then sent out two underwater robots to scour the watery floor looking for the bombs.

The good news: The robots found the decoys. Now, researchers are pouring over questions such as these: In a genuine threat, when should the military get involved? When should officials with the port, the sheriff's office, the container ship companies, the cruise lines be alerted?

The fake bomb experiment was one of the first major activities for SRI, a Silicon Valley-based research corporation that opened offices here to research major issues such as port security, aging, education and energy.

To be sure, there are procedures in place for dealing with threats such as underwater bombs. Today, SRI, the Navy and the Coast Guard will present some of their findings from the experiment at a private event in St. Petersburg.

However, one goal of the project is complete. SRI made detailed scans of the ocean floor around Tampa Bay and created a virtual model, spotting everything from dock pillars to broken refrigerators dropped in the water. That way, military officials or scientists making new scans with underwater vehicles can quickly identify new objects that could be threats.

"Under a Homeland Security structure, it's important to figure out what needs to be done in the case of a situation like this," said Larry Langebrake, director of SRI St. Petersburg, the research group directing the experiment. "We think port security is hugely important for our nation and really needs to be addressed."

The robots worked much like a Roomba automatic vacuum cleaner, following a preset back-and-forth pattern along the floor of the bay without any wired connection. All the while, they use sonar to scan for objects.

Extra sensors on the robots were designed to "sniff" for chemical agents or explosives, and even examine fingerprints on the decoys before raising them to the surface.

The next step for SRI is to study how well those agencies did in communicating about the decoy bombs, make recommendations and present its work to the government and other ports that might buy security systems or train to better protect their ports.

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at rmullins@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7919.

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