Ocean Business 2023 | Show report the shaft from themotor goes directly to the propeller, eliminating all the noise,” Justin Leap said. “To have it perform appropriately without the gearbox, we had tomake themotor a little larger to get more output torque out of it, but customers were happy with the trade-off.” The Model 2050 weighs 11.4-14.5 kg in air depending on its configuration, measures 49.4 cm long, consumes 6.4 kW of input thrust (on a supply from 150 to 330 V DC) and outputs 63 kg of force at 10 knots or up to 113 kg at 5 knots. Among the customers for the 2050 thruster are Anduril Industries for its DiveLD UUV (UST37, April/May 2021). “And while other companies have a shaft seal that goes all the way through, to connect the shaft to the propeller, on ours there’s an array of magnets on the driveshaft’s hub, and a set of opposingpolarity magnets on the propeller’s hub,” Leap added. AppliedAcoustics exhibited awide range of acoustic navigation solutions for UUVs, andmost notably showcased the Easytrak Pyxis, its new tracking system, which is a combined USBL andMEMS INS. The solution calculates range accurate to 0.01 m resolution, with position accurate to 0.12% of slant range and 0.07o DRMS at greater than 20o depression angle, and operates over a range of up to 4000m. “We’ve also expanded our Easytrak Nexus 2 with a seven-element omnidirectional transducer, which gives us 0.25% accuracy of position,” said Ben Darling from AAE Technologies (parent company to Applied Acoustics). “There are seven receive elements in the transducer head, which improves the bearing and depression angle calculations, and increases the accuracy and repeatability of the positions of the UUVs it’s tracking.” Both Pyxis and Nexus 2 are capable of acoustically tracking up to 16 targets at once. The company also showed its range of positioning beacons, which are provided in housings as standard but can be designed as OEM-style board sets for direct integration into AUV housings with connections to remote transducers. These beacons can be SWaPoptimised for UUVs working at different depths and endurances. The smallest weighs 1-1.2 kg in air, is designed for 600 m depth limits and can be operated for up to 56 hours at a time, while the largest is meant for depths down to 4000 m, operating endurances of 400 hours, and weighs 22.8 kg in air. Imagenex showcased a range of its newest multi-beam sonars, intended particularly for UUV integrations. “Our new DT360XI sonar for instance is aimed principally at robotic platforms performing tunnel inspections or similar surveys of narrow spaces,” said Doug Wilson. “It scans in 360o at five to eight shots per second, and sends 1440 beams per shot.” The company also highlighted its Delta-T 837A forward-looking multi-beam sonar, which is suitable for integration on smaller UUVs such as those from the growing micro-AUV market. “That’s always a challenge, because there are physics limitations on how much you can pare down the size and geometry of the transducers,” Wilson said. “However, power and weight are at a premium for AUVs, so optimising the sizes of those as well as our electronics are something we always try to focus on.” The Delta-T 837Ameasures 240.3 mm by 69.9 mm, consumes just under 5W at maximum performance (working on a 2236 V DC supply), and emits a beamwidth of 12o x 10o. Robosys was on hand to talk to us about its marine autonomy software, which has been developed for compliance with the COLREGs governing how vessels must conduct themselves during avoidance manoeuvres. “We’ve also developed a marine ‘intelligent’ autopilot software solution, the Voyager AI suite, and thus have a robust and proven architecture and algorithms for the safety of an uncrewed vessel,” Keith Henderson said. “And during autonomous navigation and path planning, our software takes depths into account in real time using ENC S-57 charts, to ensure the planned track is a safe one. “That minimises any risk of a USV or other autonomous ship type ending up on a sand bar or rocks.” The Voyager AI software is compatible with a range of comms bearers including satcom, MANET radio, and 4G/LTE data links. In addition to the grounding avoidance it also comes with obstacle detection, collision avoidance and autonomous return-to-base capabilities in case all comms should be lost. 107 Uncrewed Systems Technology | June/July 2023 Marine autonomy software from Robosys on a demonstrator USV
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