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23 “We streamlined the workflow so that it kind of cuts the boat out of the picture,” Douglass says. “The boats drive themselves, and operators just use the software they already know.” The focus of Douglass’ current work is on overseeing the development roadmap for SeaRobotics’ vehicles from design through to production, as well as promoting the brand and expanding the company’s distribution network. The projects with which he is most closely involved are the newest ASVs – the HYCAT and the SR-Surveyor M1.8 – leading a team of up to seven including himself. The HYCAT is focused on water quality data acquisition, while the SR-Surveyor M1.8 is a high-resolution hydrographic and terrestrial mapping system. “They were designed to streamline survey workflow and logistics for hydrologists and hydrographers,” he says. “They are survey-ready out of the box.” SeaRobotics began development of the 53 kg HYCAT in the second quarter of 2017, with the first boat delivered a year later. The company then started on the 52.3 kg SR-Surveyor M1.8, in the third quarter of 2018, which was ready for the market in the second quarter of this year. Wrestling with performance and heat Douglass says one of the toughest challenges in their development was getting the required performance from such small ASVs – both are catamarans about 1.8 m long. “The shorter a hull, the less efficient it is, so we focused on hull and propulsion design to ensure we could get a full day of survey endurance out of a single battery charge,” he says. Another was heat transfer. “These ASVs have more electronics than larger manned boats, but much less air volume in their electrical compartments for cooling. And unlike UUVs, ASVs don’t have the luxury of being able to use water to cool hotspots, so we conducted thermal analyses and used very efficient electrical components. Even the sonar was customised to consume as little power as possible but still yield quality data.” EdgeTech developed the sonar for the Surveyor M1.8, and he says it produced impressive results in a survey carried out on a road bridge that carries Interstate 95 across a tributary of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in Florida. It clearly revealed areas of scour, in which the water flow had washed away sediment around the bridge supports, something surveyors have to monitor regularly. “Finding scour is a diver-based operation in many places, with low visibility and potentially hazardous structures,” he says. “There is a huge push to get divers out of the water, and this technology really helps with that.” Douglass’ ASV team is currently scheduling local demonstrations and road trips around the US to demonstrate the HYCAT and Surveyor M1.8. In career terms, he wants to keep moving up the ladder. “That aside, I also want to create technologies that promote and protect the marine environment,” he says. Unmanned Systems Technology | October/November 2019 Geoff Douglass grew up around boats in North Weymouth, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. He spent most summers working at a marina and boatyard. He was educated in schools including Weymouth Junior High and Weymouth High School, where he focused on mathematics and pre-engineering courses. That was followed by a degree in mechanical engineering from Northeastern University, in Boston, which he attended from 2003 to 2008. This overlapped with the post of design engineer at boatbuilder Boston Whaler from 2005 to 2009, where he learned about production boatbuilding. After that he spent a year at Zurn Yacht Design, focusing on advanced composite construction methods before joining LBI to work on unmanned maritime vehicle contracts for the US Navy. He joined SeaRobotics in February 2011, where he became acquainted with a more diverse set of engineering disciplines and principles. These days he directs a multidisciplinary team of engineers and technicians developing ASVs, and spends much of his time responding to requests for quotes from potential clients and exploring new concepts in partnership with customers. Geoff Douglass