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

52 Farinella adds, “And of course, there are different kinds of sonars – forward- looking, sidescan, sub-bottom profilers and so on – that we can accommodate, as well as magnetometers and Lidars. At the end of the day the user is after information, and there’s no real limit to the type of data we can gather.” Typically, sidescan sonars will be installed on a rack elevated above the UGV’s hull to ensure that the swathes travel out and over the pontoons without interruption. Forward-looking sonars, cameras and illuminators will be mounted on the front section of the forward chassis plate, also called the deck plate. Water quality sensor bottles, depending on how many the customer wants, will typically sit in the space atop the middle of the hull (called the carriage plate), mounted and arranged as necessary for optimal data acquisition. “For instance, if the sensor relies on water flow, we’ll mount its collection aperture to face in the direction the 350 is driving in, or if it doesn’t really matter then we’ll just find some space and screw it in,” Hartman says. Locomotion and power The Bayonet 350 runs on COTS rubber tracks. While heavy, by and large, Bayonet Ocean Vehicles has rarely found terrains that they cannot traverse. “Right now, they are in a front-wheel- drive configuration, but we can easily configure a 350 for rear-wheel drive: it’s just a software switch and a slight tweak or two to the usual assembly process,” Farinella says. “We’re looking into all- wheel drive as well, and that would raise our game in terms of our maximum weight capacity to carry sensors and perhaps even a separate sensor sled towed behind the UGV.” As mentioned, each pontoon contains a battery pack, a motor controller, an electric motor near the front and a gearbox. In an all-wheel-drive configuration, the 350 would essentially integrate two more e-motors near the back to double the total power to the track. “The gearbox can be two- or three-stage, and we have different options for gear ratios depending on the speed or torque requirements for whichever Bayonet the end-user has and how they’re operating it,” Farinella says. “Our ratios can go as low as 5:1 and as high as 100:1. “We have standardised the reduction ratio on the 350 but we’re not disclosing what that is yet; we tend towards higher gear ratios than lower ones though. This is meant to be a work-class vehicle, so our users tend to want to carry more, not less. That drives up the torque requirement, and higher speeds don’t do much to help when you’re carrying out sonar surveys.” The lithium-ion battery packs are limited to 8 kWh of stored energy (to allow transportation by ship or air), for 16 kWh of total onboard energy, and can deliver up to 60 W around the vehicle at a time. That means up to 120 W is also the peak motor output, which is enough for the UGV’s 1.8 kph peak speed. “We also offer some options as far as power distribution is concerned,” Farinella says. “We can install a dedicated payload battery with maybe an extra kilowatt-hour or more, or all the onboard systems can plug into either of the pontoon batteries, or we can install a distribution box that can actively switch power delivery between subsystems. “It’s really a matter of the use case and preference. We’re a new company trying to break into new markets, and not everyone is going to want the same thing, so keeping our systems modular and flexible is a firm requirement.” There is a charging port on the front of the 350’s control box, although users can also swap in freshly charged batteries without much difficulty. Notably, the 350 is August/September 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology The Bayonet 350’s open frame makes for considerable payload mounting space, with up to 195 kg of sensor capacity Because we have a depth pressure sensor accurate to 10 cm, and know our latitude and longitude, we can use the waypoint’s pre-programming