Issue 45 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Aug/Sept 2022 Tidewie USV Tupan | Performance monitoring | Bayonet 350 | UAVs insight | Xponential 2022 | ULPower UL350i and UL350iHPS | Elroy Air Chaparral | Gimbals | Clogworks Dark Matter

32 On the integration of mission sensors, Joyeux comments, “The beauty of having a moon pool is that you can mount the gear needed to operate each specific sensor in it, and the vessel’s autonomy main computer will see the whole assembly as a single payload, in mechanical as well as electrical terms.” “At the moment, we have one payload frame in there to vertically lower multi- beam echo sounders and ADCPs, to keep them away from interference during operation and protected inside the pool from wave impacts or floating debris during higher speed transits. “As we’ve said, the total payload weight depends on the centre of balance and the height of the centre of gravity, although in the moon pool alone we can safely have 150 kg without having to move other weights on the vessel to adjust the trim,” he says. Removing one payload frame and installing a new one is a 20-minute job; cable routing takes longer though. As Joyeux explains, “If we’ve installed a system before, familiarity means we can be done in 2-6 hours. If not, it can be longer, maybe up to 12 hours depending on the new system’s complexity.” Also, any UAV sitting atop the Tupan’s landing bay, or an ROV stowed in the moon pool, can be considered a mission payload in terms of the weight it adds and the critical data it gathers throughout its deployments from the USV. The UAVs available for TideWise’s customers to choose from are currently limited to systems powered by the DJI A3 flight controller, as the proprietary software responsible for intelligent and safe landing on the pad has been written for compatibility with the A3’s architecture. “As a result, we’re currently using a DJI M600, which is about as big and heavy as the Tupan can safely carry, but we don’t intend to be limited to this model,” Coelho says. Joyeux adds, “We are already capable of interfacing our flight algorithms with MAVLink-based autopilots, because we regularly communicate over the MAVLink protocol for simulations and testing. We’re also open to working with other partners in the world of UAV autopilots, it’s just a question of how good their velocity controller is, because honestly, DJI’s velocity controller is really good, which is extremely helpful when it comes to landing a drone safely on a USV. “Beyond that, it’s a matter of how open the autopilot is, and hence how deep we can go into its control layers. Anything Pixhawk-based ought to work well, as DJI’s system is quite opaque, technically speaking.” GNSS navigation Navigation and autonomy are processed through TideWise’s proprietary embedded control software, WiseControl. It relies on GNSS for localisation, although Joyeux and his team are working to add real- time, close-range situational awareness and path planning to help close-quarter navigation in congested areas such as August/September 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Cameras about the mast provide for obstacle detection, and will probably be used for object classification next year The comms mast includes a 2.4 GHz antenna, two cellular antennas and four COFDM antennas