24 Many of today’s most successful UAVs leverage precise flight and hover controls with valuable payloads to unlock new forms of data gathering and intelligent behaviour across survey, indoor inspection and cinematography operations. Belgium-based uWare Robotics is one of a new breed of AUV manufacturer that is specifically aiming to offer an autonomous submersible that replicates these functions of multi-rotor air vehicles in a marine environment, navigating freely in all directions, and hovering with the agility and dynamism of a multirotor UAV to survey and inspect underwater. That product offering is the uOne, a 50 x 40 x 40 cm AUV. Electric batterypowered with eight thrusters, it has a maximum speed of 3 knots (0.5 knots cruise) and endurance of two to three hours between battery swaps. The system weighs 18 kg in the air (with up to 5 kg of payload capacity). As a light-duty, easily deployable microAUV, it is currently depth-rated to 75 m, operates in waters with temperatures of 0-35 C and can be deployed within 10 minutes by a single operator. That makes the uOne easier to deploy than many other AUVs; it additionally operates primarily using visual navigation, integrating a frontal stereo camera as well as a bottom-facing one, with robust decision-making algorithms to allow precise and repeatable operations even in unchartered waters. This has been achieved while keeping the AUV cost-effective and hence more accessible to a wide range of users, and ongoing advances in the uOne’s decision-making will enable it to autonomously identify and prioritise points of interest during inspections – essentially thinking and acting with the intelligence of a human diver. From concept to reality The uOne originated from an idea for an underwater robot that would follow a diver as they swam around, videoing them and recording their activities, as well as any surrounding biodiversity and terrain. This concept came from tech entrepreneur Christophe Chatillon, founder and now chairman of the board at uWare. The first brainstorming session to flesh out the hardware and software required to bring this idea to reality occurred during what was meant to be a job interview for robotics engineers The free-moving uOne can do it all – hover, accelerate, change direction and gather data energy-efficiently – through quick, shallow water missions. Rory Jackson reports February/March 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Intelligent dives
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