38 Dossier | ACUA Ocean Pioneer-class H-USV Pioneer to rotate approximately around its centre. Each propeller is driven by an axial-flux electric motor, outputting roughly 60 hp (44 kW) in normal operation or up to 124 kW at peak. A rudder adds steering redundancy in the event of the loss of a shaft. “Axial-flux motors are incredibly compact, and one of the highest energydensity propulsion configurations available, which is important as it gets quite cramped inside the demi-hulls,” Mulcahy says. Over the iron sea Following its first trial deployment in December 2024, ACUA Ocean plans to rapidly accumulate further trial hours on the waters outside Plymouth, and continue working with current and new partners to demonstrate payloads, as well as other technologies, in 2025. Beyond 2025, this will include any new developments in liquid hydrogen that come along. While technical advancements and commercial confidence in liquid hydrogen will need to accumulate (with diesel and even gaseous hydrogen being far more widely used and trusted than liquid hydrogen, as of writing), it remains a guiding star in ACUA Ocean’s ambitions to produce world-leading zero-carbon USVs. “But, even if Pioneer is offering capabilities that have never been available before, customers always ask for more. We’ve already teased about our Maelstrom concept vessel, which is slated to be a 24 m-long sibling to Pioneer, and we’re going to learn a lot in the water that informs future designs, workarounds and subsystem selections, which will feed into bigger H-USVs,” Mike says. Once sea trials are completed (probably by close of Q1 2025), commercial sale and deployments of Pioneer-class USVs are expected to commence. Going forwards, in addition to expanding the physical shape of Pioneer, expansions of its autonomy and control capabilities are anticipated. “Right now, one operator and engineer will be consumed with operating one Pioneer, which is a significant return over a crewed vessel and the potentially dozens of people needed for one of those,” Mulcahy says. “But we hope to reduce the cognitive load on operators to the point that one operator-engineer pairing could run two, three or four vessels. As we move from IMO Autonomy level three to level four, possibly releasing update packages of helper functions in a ‘level 3.1, 3.2, then 3.3’ manner, the two personnel could start to sit back more and more, intervening solely when there are anomalies the USV can’t address itself.” While naval vessels often have decade-long lead times, often meaning subsystems that are 10 or more years old, ACUA Ocean anticipates narrowing that gap, thanks to the agile, modular way that the H-USVs are manufactured and scaled. “We don’t see the Pioneer-class being built as a few batches of one or two units. We’re growing a company that will be capable of fielding hundreds of these vessels across dual-use cases and more complex multirole operations,” Mike says. “In the North Sea, for instance, they’re not allowed to launch or recover ROVs when there are waves of 2 m or higher, which gives only 120 days of survey opportunity around Orkney and Shetland. “By operating safely in waves of 4 m and higher, we widen the available survey time to over 250 days each year in sea states up to 3 m. That’s an absolute game-changer in these time- and cost-sensitive industries, and it’s only going to get better from there.” February/March 2025 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Pioneer-class H-USV Small waterplane area, twin-hull (SWATH) Aluminium vessel (with steel moon-pool booms) Hybrid-electric (including hydrogen fuel cells) Length: 14.2 m Beam: 9 m Draft: 1.6 m Height (including mast): 8.1 m Maximum displacement: 25.7 t Payload capacity: 6.5 t Moon-pool capacity: 6.5 m x 3.8 m (accommodates a TEU 20 ft ISO container, or two 10 ft ISO containers) Maximum speed: 6.5 knots Operating speed: 4 knots Endurance: 18 days on H2, 50 days on diesel (4 knots average speed) Some key suppliers SWATH engineering consultation: Ad Hoc Marine Designs Vessel design and construction: Aluminium Marine Consultants Vessel automation and control software: Robosys Automation Hydrogen fuel cells: Nuvera Batteries: Kreisel Batteries: Victron Energy Electric power distribution systems: Trident Marine Electrical Electric drive systems: RAD Propulsion Propellers: CJR Keel cooler: Kort Keel cooler: RW Fenstrum Cable glands: Roxtec Weather sensor: Airmar Radar: Simrad PTZ cameras: Dupre Marine EO cameras: Garmin CCTV and spotlight cameras: Redvision IR cameras: Teledyne FLIR Video-streaming: Videosoft UHF data link: Fort Robotics Key specifications
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