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95 yet tested them all the way to failure.” The thruster design avoids conventional design methods such as installing a COTS motor in a tube and coupling it to the outside magnetically or by a shaft seal, which can give rise to bulky structures and costly maintenance. Instead, components such as the motor windings and magnets use a proprietary multi-layer coating to prevent corrosion. Also, plastic bushings are used instead of steel ball bearings. “That enables the full flooding, and the water provides cooling and lubrication as well,” Jehangir added. SBG Systems chose the show to debut its Navsight marine solution for surface vessel navigation. Jeremy Colombel said, “The idea of the system is to place the main Navsight box in a dry room, while the IMU can be linked to a sonar head or elsewhere on deck thanks to the titanium housing. Inside the main unit, you can choose to have an integrated GNSS receiver or use an external one.” The 1.9 kg Navsight unit consumes about 3 W, or up to 7 W after integrating a GNSS receiver. The standard configuration can access GPS and GLONASS signals in their L1, L2 and L5 bands, with options for Galileo or BeiDou. Corrective processing by RTK or PPP services are available on request. Navsight users can also integrate IMUs from SBG’s shallow-water Ekinox series or its shallow-to-deep water Apogee series, in enclosures designed for surface or subsea installations. Trimble unveiled its new MPS865 marine positioning system, aimed at GNSS for marine survey and construction. “The system integrates position and heading with a wide range of comms options that we’ve migrated from other systems in our portfolio into one solution,” said Simon Rush. “GNSS and heading information is coupled with Teledyne’s integrated sonar solutions to provide positioning and precise seabed mapping above and below the water’s surface.” The MPS865 integrates GNSS, comms and a UHF-band radio for an overall weight of 1.7 kg, and features dual-feed GNSS antenna inputs, with access to all existing and expected navigation satellite constellations. RTK or PPK corrections can also be used for more accurate positioning as required. Dynautics attended the expo to display its embedded processors for UUVs, USVs and manned boats needing autonomous packages, as well as its newest system, the Spectre autopilot. The autopilot has been incorporated into a module that provides a self- contained remote control system suitable for a small electric boat. The company has also developed a comprehensive simulation environment for surface and underwater vehicles. Applications include autopilot testing, hardware-in-the-loop testing, concept studies as an aid to system design, and development and training. Dynautics also showcased its SimBox system, which is aimed at bundling together the simulation software with the Spectre autopilot and its Remote Control Workstation software to enable new vehicle concepts to be optimised before committing to hardware build. Dr Henry Robinson said, “We have seen an increase in the development of smaller electrically powered vehicles, so we have focused on developing low- power electronics and processors to meet such vehicles and mission applications.” Exocetus exhibited its MOD2, a 184 cm-long glider AUV with a wingspan of 106.2 cm. It was formerly known as the Coastal or Littoral glider. “The AUV is driven entirely through buoyancy, and we’ve been updating it over the past 18 months,” said Joe Turner. “We’ve integrated a new control and navigation suite, the GS3 MEMS INS from Greensea. We’ve also installed new Greensea processor hardware, with processing distributed over three computers, for redundancy and power efficiency. “For the simplest operations and tasks, the AUV can autonomously shut off superfluous processors and save power to extend its endurance, while executing its mission along pre-programmed waypoints.” The MOD2’s standard endurance is 15 days if using 14 MJ alkaline Unmanned Systems Technology | April/May 2018 SBG Systems’ Navsight for surface vessels The MPS865 positioning system from Trimble is aimed at marine surveying