Unmanned Systems Technology 022 | XOcean XO-450 l Radar systems l Space vehicles insight l Small Robot l BMPower FCPS l Prismatic HALE UAV l InterDrone 2018 show report l UpVision l Navigation systems

23 anything else that moves and to which a sensor can be attached. For a fixed price, XOcean collects data for a client and hands it to them on a hard drive at the end of the mission, taking on all the risks in the collection process on a ‘no data, no fee’ basis and offering a data quality guarantee. With a combination of its own funds – some from friends and family and, later, some financing from the Irish government – Ives started work from his hillside home on the shores of Carlingford Lough on Ireland’s east coast in early 2017. He recruited a small team including seven other engineers and technicians who joined him in the summer, most having worked with him before in previous companies. Two XO-450s have been built, the prototype and a second with a number of detail modifications that have brought it to near production standard, and this small fleet has already undertaken paid work gathering fisheries data for government agency Marine Institute Ireland. The USV has been shaped by four key design requirements that flow from the service concept. It must support sensors that weigh 50 kg or more and need significant amounts of power. It must operate at over-the-horizon ranges, under the control of a shore station as well. It also has to replicate the controls and displays that a surveyor aboard a manned vessel would use to assess the quality of the data in real time and to intervene if necessary. Finally, it must be easy to transport and deploy. The XO-450 fits on a trailer that XOcean XO-450 | Dossier Unmanned Systems Technology | October/November 2018 The XOcean team pulls the USV from the water on its customised trailer. The hulls’ under-surfaces are the contact points with the trailer, so they are free of sensors and any other equipment that could be damaged or cause drag (Author’s image)