98 UVIO | Maritime Robotics USV working days of endurance at a 6 knot top speed on a single fuel tank. Hence, refuellings are rarely performed more than once per week, and typical maintenance consists of visually inspecting the oil tanks and engine belts, and scanning for signs of wear and tear; such checks can be done dockside. Other parts have been engineered for easy replacement, such as the onboard computer, which can come in a Pelican case for easy lifting out from inside the deck hatch (and lowering in of a new one). “I’ve done lots of maintenance on small vessels, and I hate it, so we’ve designed for a wide, open space inside the hatch where operators can easily see everything in the powertrain that needs to be inspected,” Moholt explains. Hovstein says: “Of course, there is increasing impetus to remove the diesel engine and go all-electric, because then it would just remove all the belts, all the oil changes – just so, so many points of servicing and repair – and the operational flexibility would be greater, because most of the ‘remote’ locations we would try to deliver to will have accessible electricity for spot charging.” Moholt concurs, adding: “For sceptics who fret about range anxiety, going far or quickly with a diesel boat means drinking an awful amount of fuel. You’re really not as free or independent as you think when running on fuel at sea. “But USVs don’t even need to go quickly; they can move at a gentle 3 knots, make their destination in a known timespan, and even recharge at sea if solar panels or wind turbines are installed onboard. We think there’s going to be a lot more electric USVs in logistics as time goes on.” The future Maritime Robotics plans to continue optimising its USV designs as end-users make their requirements clearer, with modularity to remain at the forefront of its engineering priorities. “Again, this operation is partially being carried out as a proof-of-concept. Since we’re an OEM, there is no reason [why] we couldn’t design and build a totally new USV in a design and volume specific to an end-user’s exact requirements if they have a decent idea of what they need, or wanted to sit with us to talk through their needs,” Hovstein explains. He says there are two major autonomous ship projects ongoing in Norway, the aforementioned Yara Birkeland and the Basto Fosen VI ferry (discussed in Issue 32), which are gradually reducing their crew complements in operation and approaching fully uncrewed sailing. “But both of these use-cases rely on inputs and produce outputs that connect to more remote locations, which don’t have the infrastructure to work with big ships, but could easily use a system of USVs,” Hovstein says. Moholt adds: “In the project with Ørsted [briefly discussed in Issue 56], we also configured the autonomy so that their USV would follow their crewed vessel at a fixed bearing and distance. “That, plus a lot of work we’ve been doing behind closed doors to develop our patented formation control technologies, means we could fairly easily organise fleets and networks of delivery USVs across varying waterfronts and waterways, with their own collision avoidance and autonomous speed adjustments taking care of much of the edge cases.” October/November 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Mariner USV Length: 5.9 m Width: 2.06 m Height: 2.9 m Draft: 80 cm Dry weight: 2000 kg Top speed: 24 knots Endurance: 50 h at 4 knots Payload capacity: 400 kg Some key suppliers Diesel engine: Yanmar Electric thrusters: Torqeedo Water jet: Hamilton Jet Multi-beam sonar: Kongsberg Multi-beam sonar: Norbit Key specifications The company sees widespread use-cases for right-sized USV logistics, especially leveraging community ports too small to receive crewed freighters and container ships
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mzk4