Unmanned Systems Technology 021 | Robot Aviation FX450 l Imaging Sensors focus l UAVs Insight l Liquid-Piston X-Mini l Riptide l Eurosatory 2018 show report l Zipline l Electric Motors focus l ASTS show report

ASV Global has teamed up with Sonardyne, Seebyte and the UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC) to develop a long- endurance, multi-vehicle, autonomous survey solution (writes Nick Flaherty). The Autonomous Surface and Sub-surface Survey System uses Sonardyne’s USBL acoustic positioning and AvTrak telemetry systems on ASV’s C-Worker 5 autonomous surface vehicle to locate, track, command and control the NOC’s Autosub Long Range autonomous underwater vehicle. Position and mission status updates were transmitted to shore via RF comms from the C-Worker. Pairing an underwater vehicle with a surface craft means the positioning accuracy needed for reliable survey data can be improved for missions lasting weeks, if not months, without the need for manned surface vessel support. “We’ve shown that our technology can enable an underwater vehicle to operate autonomously with a surface vehicle and offload its Solstice sidescan survey data using our BlueComm high-speed optical modem,” said Geraint West at Sonardyne. “The acoustic comms avoids the Autosub having to surface from 6 km deep. “This is not only about tracking but getting quality data back from the system via the acoustic comms.” Pedro Patron at SeeByte said, “This project has enabled us to demonstrate a novel autonomous behaviour running under the Neptune Autonomy engine to optimise the search, localisation and tracking of multiple vehicles based on understanding the overall mission tasks and the prediction of other vehicles’ positions. “This behaviour enables safe unattended comms relay tasking and efficient data transfers for long-range over-the-horizon maritime operations.” Marine vehicles Long surveys The joint effort aims to produce a multi- vehicle autonomous survey system