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although it is something we have done in the past with our C-Enduro”, he says. “The practical limit for the vessel operating at sea is probably sea state four anyway. Beyond that you start getting breaking waves on a 3 m vessel.” He explains that the survey sonars tend to set the limits for rough water operations. “Realistically, you can get them all to work quite comfortably with almost any motion in sea states one to three,” he says. Beyond that, he says, the vehicle begins to have an impact because of the limit it imposes on the depth to which the sensor can be used. The C-Cat 3, for example, is not big enough to be fitted with a very long sensor pole to ASV C-Cat 3 survey USV Configuration: catamaran Materials: hulls made from roto-moulded polyethylene, gondola from hand-laid GRP, cross-beams from extruded and anodised 6061 aluminium alloy Length: 3.02 m Beam: 1.55 m Draft: minimum 0.39 m; maximum (depending on payload) about 0.7 m Weight: unladen 270 kg, fully loaded 340 kg Propulsion: two DC electric motors Propellers: three-bladed Speed: up to 8 knots Payload power: 12 or 24 V from lithium-ion batteries Control: ASView for direct, semi-autonomous or autonomous control Comms: wi-fi, COFDM radio, Iridium satcom Some key suppliers Hull hatch: Monstercam Metals: Aalco Propulsion system: Torqeedo GRP: Marineware Multi-beam sonar: Norbit iWBMS Compass: SM Group Europe Batteries: Torqeedo Data sheet