78 The ‘blue economy’ comprises ocean data markets, offshore industries, maritime logistics and more, all of which are growing relentlessly. Some have suggested to us that the growth rate in ocean industries has outpaced the rate at which USVs are being adopted throughout them, and they attribute this disparity to a few technical challenges facing manufacturers. One concerns how these vehicles handle rough operating conditions and sea states. Stability is critical when out at sea, as USVs risk gathering poor-quality survey data, capsizing, or being damaged to the point that they must be retrieved by a crewed ship or go missing entirely and constitute a lost investment. It is also increasingly requested that USVs come with sufficient onboard power and space to integrate, launch and recover powerful payloads, or potentially even other uncrewed vehicles, and to perform onboard processing of collected data (potentially with AI-powered edge computers for transmitting actionable analytics to end-users and their customers). Lastly, and closely relating to the first point, reliability across the architectures of USVs is vital for assuring potential customers that they can be trusted to run remotely and beyond their line-of-sight. As we have said in past issues, a vehicle is not truly autonomous if it constantly needs to be collected and maintained or repaired before its onboard energy store even has a chance to run dry. For example, many USV designers try to provide high power for payloads by integrating a large, multi-cylinder diesel engine and generator. That brings a cluster of oil changes, filter changes, potential points of mechanical failure, and so on, which cannot be addressed Electrification is picking up for USVs as the powertrains are more reliable and battery weight is not an issue on water, as Rory Jackson discovers Stability at sea June/July 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Currently under construction, ACUA Ocean’s 25 t H-USV is a SWATH vessel, meaning most of its displacement is in submerged hulls, such as that pictured (Image courtesy of ACUA Ocean)
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