Unmanned Systems Technology 009 | Ocean Aero Submaran S10 | Simulation and testing | Farnborough report | 3W-110xi b2 TS HFE FI | USVs | Data storage | Eurosatory/UGS 2016 report

67 scaled up to a larger boat with a 3 m mast if the results are positive. Buoys are expensive to moor and maintain with support ships, and in storms they sometimes break free, so if the AutoNaut system can head out to a location, gather the same quality of data and return to base by itself, this could reduce costs. It also means the maintenance can all be done onshore, lowering the expense further. Once at the desired location, the AutoNaut circled in a 25 m radius until told to return to base. With two AutoNauts to replace each other on station it will be possible to do all the maintenance ashore, even for buoys moored in the deep Atlantic.  “During the trial we had a good range of weather, from flat calm to 42-knot gusts,” says Mike Poole, director of MOST.  “These small boats have been through storms and gales in the open Atlantic, so we are quite confident they are seaworthy.” For monitoring for longer durations, Autonomous Marine Systems has been working for the past six years on the Datamaran, a 2.5 m long and 2.3 m high autonomous system that generates power from a rigid sail and solar panels. The self-trimming wing sail generates power from moving in the wind, and an electric propeller is used for tight manoeuvring and added speed up to 2.4 knots. A 600 kWh battery is charged by the solar cells and provides 2 W of power for the payload’s 12, 5 or 3 V power lines, with RS-232, RS-485 and RS-422 comms links. A low-power embedded processing board handles proprietary navigational algorithms that allow the Datamaran to sail via waypoints anywhere in the world. Once it arrives at a waypoint, it can keep position within a 50 m radius to provide reliable data collection and transmission via either a link to the Iridium satellite network, a cellular connection or by connecting to other Datamaran craft using a dedicated 10 Mbit/s short-range radio link. This allows each Datamaran to be a node in a self-organising network and forward data to the next node. The company raised $3.5m to finalise the craft’s development, and plans to launch a fleet of Datamarans around the world during 2017. Conclusion Despite all these advances though, there is still a long way to go in the development of fully autonomous systems at sea. “Fully autonomous operation is certainly the trend that the market is looking for but there are still obstacles,” says Prender at Textron. “A lot of the challenges have to do with the ColRegs and international regulations, so primarily we are operating with line-of-sight but we are working on autonomous solutions. Every system really needs the ability to operate at different levels.” He sees the need for maritime systems to have a sliding scale of autonomous technology, from a remote user with a handheld controller that can then pass that same vehicle to a local command and control station operating with a man in the loop. From there it would go on to a pre- planned mission where the system operates autonomously, and during that mission the system has the capability to provide some level of autonomy with obstacle detection and avoidance. Prender says, “You can draw parallels with the FAA and small UASs in the US – there will be small incremental steps and the small UASs are currently ahead of surface vehicles in terms of technology and regulation. But you are now seeing the USVs start to grow in maturity, and as that happens and the surface vehicles are deployed and operated, you get the user feedback that influences the OEM development, and that will deliver new capabilities.” Unmanned Systems Technology | August/September 2016 USVs | Insight Datamaran generates its own power from a rigid sail and solar panels, and can sail via waypoints around the world