52 Digest | Bedrock Ocean AUV “The second version started trials in mid-2021, and we had basically rebuilt the core architecture into the first prototype of an all-Bedrock vehicle from scratch: all-new PCBs, batteries; we replaced the propulsion unit with one we’d made; we even built our own submersible antennas, and so on,” Chiau says. That vehicle outwardly bore close resemblance to the AUV seen today. Soon after, Bedrock and its control system provider weren’t a match hence Bedrock opted to rewrite the entire GNC software in-house, including cloud-based mission-planning interfaces, behavioural subroutines, data and telemetry monitoring, and more. “That took another year, so in summer 2022, we ran a fully autonomous mission – with our entire software and hardware architecture – for the first time, in Lake Tahoe,” Chiau says. “We managed our ‘lawnmowing’ survey patterns and smart behaviours pretty well, but ran into issues with the inertial navigation sensor, and then we found out that our chosen INS had actually reached its production end of life.” While running on spare units of the otherwise defunct inertial system, Bedrock had to revisit its supply chain strategy, aiming for the highest-grade solution feasible. Chiau and his team always knew that Exail’s Phins C3 INS was a standard choice and the closest match for its performance needs, but it wouldn’t fit the AUV’s available installation volume, optimised for packed sonars and minimising transport volume. This posed a critical hurdle to the precise guidance and survey data resolutions that Bedrock’s target markets needed, particularly offshore wind and other marine construction. The company was particularly determined to achieve such precision without needing a surface-based USBL system, or a larger and more unwieldy AUV design. “So, we and Exail visited each other, and had big discussions about future plans and roadmap alignments. They saw we weren’t just building stuff in a home garage, that we actually had a serious production facility with hand-picked engineers, and laid out methodologies and traceability, reflecting our team’s experience in aerospace, military, consumer electronics and long-term vision,” Chiau says. “After that, we were the first ones to get to dive with the Phins 9 Compact, which we still use today. It has the performance of their C5, but in a much smaller form factor, about half the size of a C3. It was made to fit our AUV.” In February 2023, six months after the Lake Tahoe trial, Bedrock deployed its single prototype in the ocean for the first time at Monterey Bay, thus proving to many prospective but (then) sceptical customers that the first-time AUV manufacturer had engineered something both functional and precise in its autonomous surveying. By October that year, the company had built two more AUVs, and carried out its first subsea corridor survey using all the vehicles. Of the seven Bedrock AUVs running today, four are first-generation models running the technically defunct INS, while three are the second-generation AUV (which the company regards as its premier, commercial-grade tool for data collection) using the Exail Phins 9 Compact, as well as several other carefully selected navigation and commercial-grade survey sensors. Five additional systems have been built, consisting of the first MVP prototype, various testbed AUVs and a USV platform used in r&d. “The first-gen had an endurance of 12-plus hours, a few hours or so August/September 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology The AUV’s front half is its payload section (also containing autonomy and navigation systems), while its rear half is for power and propulsion. The two mate via mechanical latches at the sides
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