Unmanned Systems Technology 024 | Wingcopter 178 l 5G focus l UUVs insight l CES report l Stromkind KAT l Intelligent Energy fuel cell l Earthsense TerraSentia l Connectors focus l Advanced Engineering report

62 time, and as the craft moves slowly collecting ocean waste, the power from the solar panels is sufficient to drive the motor for as long as necessary. Another application being requested by customers is to ferry cargo. The 10 m platform could carry a 20 ft shipping container from a container ship to a harbour. That would open up access to smaller harbours that cannot accept larger container ships. “We have also had requests to ferry cargo at night time,” Desch says. “This is a very interesting application for ports that cannot provide access for larger ships – you offload outside the port and deliver via rivers and so on, to overcome the challenges of small harbours, for example those in the Niger delta.” This application would use a number of catamarans following each other as a ‘train’ to the harbour, along permitted marine routes rather than navigating themselves. “The USVs follow each other, then split as they arrive at a destination. In this way we are integrating regulations into our technology so it can be used in any marine register.” The USVs would be self-docking, making runs until they need to return to the harbour to recharge at a docking station. “If you have sufficient time for charging you don’t need so many batteries. We used 60 kW of second-hand i3 batteries from a BMW, and you can run the motor and pump with 400 V conventional electronics and standard 50 Hz motor parts.” Another application is a firefighting service. It may seem counter-intuitive, what with being surrounded by water, but fires on boats and ships are common, and many of them do not carry sufficient firefighting equipment to deal with electrical fires for example. That opens up the opportunity for a high-speed craft pre-stocked with fire extinguishers to travel quickly to a boat in trouble without having to wait for a driver. This would use the smallest KAT-150 catamaran with two of the smallest thrusters, each generating 250 N of torque and a 25 kW motor to achieve a peak speed of 15-20 knots to get to a boat in trouble as quickly as possible. The team also has plenty of experience of integrating a range of data links for maritime applications, and 3D-prints its own antennas and radomes. “We have capabilities up to laser links with terabyte capabilities if necessary,” says Desch. This high-speed data could be used to feed high-definition video back from a craft to the shore. Sensor suite However, this type of application does require sensors of various ranges being tightly coupled with data fusion software, especially for self-docking for unloading the containers and docking with a charging point. For long-range sensing, the platform February/March 2019 | Unmanned Systems Technology A 3 m-long version of the KAT is in development to meet a demand for carrying cargo