Unmanned Systems Technology 001 | UAV Factory Penguin C | Real-time operating systems | Hirth S1218 two-stroke twin | Base stations | ASV C-Enduro | Composites | Datacomms

51 T he C-Enduro project was sparked in September 2012 by UK company Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASV) entering a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition initiated by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC). SBRIs are intended to find innovative solutions from the private sector for problems facing public bodies such as the NOC. The competition was co- funded by UK government-supported bodies the Technology Strategy Board, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. In this instance the NOC was looking for an unmanned craft that could exploit established and emerging sensor technology to gather data from the ocean for months at a time, without refuelling or other hands-on human intervention during the operation. The NOC’s target for a LEMUSV (Long Endurance Marine Unmanned Surface Vehicle) was three months at sea. It also had to be capable of covering at least 100 nautical miles on such a mission. ASV did not have an existing vessel with the necessary range capability so it set about the conceptual design of one. The solution was seen in a craft with protected propellers driven by an electric motor and having its battery recharged by a combination of three power sources – a small-displacement internal combustion (IC) engine, solar panels and a wind turbine. As well as maximising duration potential, such a ‘three pillar’ solution was considered fault-tolerant. In December 2012, ASV’s initial LEMUSV design study won a grant of £50,000 (about $85,000) to test its feasibility as phase one of the SBRI. The funding enabled ASV to develop a numeric simulation tool to evaluate in time and space the capability of harvesting solar and wind energy. At the same time, a representative catamaran fitted with solar panels, a wind turbine and data logger was moored in realistic conditions for a month to study the devices’ performance and evaluate the software predictions. ASV also completed a full-scale towing test to validate its hull-drag CFD simulations. The experiments and simulations indicated that a large solar array coupled to a wind turbine and a diesel generator could reliably provide the required energy. The project was successful enough to allow ASV to progress to the second phase of the SBRI competition, which in early 2013 brought with it a grant of £390,000 to create a proper working prototype. ASV, which is based near Portsmouth, England, subcontracted Hyperdrive Innovation to design and build the power management system. The full system was rig-tested at Hyperdrive’s base in Sunderland, England, where it was fitted into a mock-up hull to validate the packaging. The rig tests helped optimise the power management system and the cooling system, and identify possible points of failure. The C-Enduro project went from concept to the water in only seven months, the prototype having its first sea trials in November 2013 in The ASV C-Enduro | Dossier The project went from concept to the water in only seven months, with the first sea trials in November 2013 The C-Enduro is a new generation of unmanned vessel designed to undertake missions that can last for many weeks at a time