Unmanned Systems Technology 002 | Scion SA-400 | Commercial UAV Show report | Vision sensors | Danielson Trident I Security and safety systems | MIRA MACE | Additive manufacturing | Marine UUVs

77 and download the data that has been collected. However, communications can be a problem as the vessels have to surface in order to connect to an operator for location data or to upload images. Being able to stay underwater for longer, store images and return to a base ship or location therefore changes the way surveys and other undersea applications are designed. With this in mind a new £4m Centre for Maritime Intelligent Systems (CMIS) in Portsdown Technology Park in Southampton, UK, is developing technology for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), which can be autonomous but can also be remotely controlled. The centre is setting up a simulation system called a synthetic environment to develop proof-of-concept designs of new vessels as part of a maritime autonomous systems demonstrator programme. Alongside £1m of funding from the UK’s Ministry of Defence, there is also £1m available for small companies to develop autonomous technologies in collaboration with the centre. One of these, Blue Bear, has integrated its Multiple Vehicle Integration Testbed (MUVIT) into the CMIS environment for the rapid development of manned and unmanned concepts into sea-trialled systems using in-the- loop testing of hardware and software. Blue Bear’s autonomy and automation software is already used on AUVs, and the company sees it being used for underwater designs at CMIS. Swarming It’s not just new craft that are being developed though. A new technique called Ghia, developed by UK consultancy Plextek, shows how a swarm of unmanned AUVs could improve the accuracy of their positioning by sharing information over a hydro-acoustic data link that uses sound rather than radio waves. This is ideal for underwater, where traditional radio systems and the satellite navigation network don’t work and an autonomous system has to use an inertial navigation system. The technology has been demonstrated using AUVs as a model, and Plextek is now investigating how the linked vessels can share information among themselves to maintain highly accurate estimates of position and time. To estimate Marine UUVs | Insight The new shape makes it easier to transport and launch them from ships, aircraft and helicopters that already launch torpedos, giving more flexibility Unmanned Systems Technology | Spring 2015 Launching the Kongsberg SeaGlider