Robot boat completes three-week Atlantic mission
A 12m Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV), Maxlimer, has completed a 22-day-long mission to map an area of seafloor in the Atlantic in an impressive demonstration of the furture of robotic operations, according to BBC News.
The UK boat was developed and ‘skippered’ for the entire crossing by SEA-KIT International from its base in Tollesbury in Essex. The mission was part funded by the European Space Agency.
According to BBC News, robot boats promise a dramatic change in the way we work at sea with many of the big survey companies that run traditional crewed vessels starting to invest heavily in the new, remotely operated technologies. Freight companies are also acknowledging the cost advantages that will come from running robot ships.
But “over-the-horizon” control has to show it’s practical and safe if it’s to gain wider acceptance, which is why the demonstration and achievement by the Maxlimer is so important
The USV was despatched from Plymouth in late July and sent to a location some 460km (280 miles) to the south-west. With a multi-beam echo-sounder attached to its hull, the boat mapped more than 1,000sq km of continental shelf area, down to about a kilometre in depth. This was a segment of seafloor that had essentially no modern data registered with the UK Hydrographic Office.
SEA-KIT had wanted to send the USV across the Atlantic to America for the demonstration, but the Covid-19 crisis made this impossible to organise.
“The project’s overall aim was to demonstrate the capabilities of current technologies to survey unexplored or inadequately surveyed ocean frontiers and despite the planning challenges we faced due to Covid-19, I feel that we have done that,” says SEA-KIT director of technology, Peter Walker. “We have proven the true over-the-horizon capability of our USV design and the team are exhausted but elated.”
The USV Maxlimer was originally developed for – and won – the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, a competition to find the next-generation technologies that could be used to map the global ocean floor.
Making use of a communications and control system known as Global Situational Awareness via Internet, a USV operator can remotely access CCTV footage, thermal imaging and radar through the vessel, as well as listen live to the USV’s surroundings and even communicate with others in the vicinity. The vessel links to three independent satellite systems to stay in contact with the control room in Tollesbury.
The hybrid diesel-electric propulsion system onboard is highly efficient, although the boat moves slowly at up to 4 knots (7km/h; 5mph). EA-KIT CEO and designer, Ben Simpson, told BBC News: “We had a sweepstake on how much fuel would be left in the tank. We thought there was going to be 300-400 litres. It turned out there was 1,300 litres.” Meaning, Maxlimer returned to Plymouth with its fuel tank still around a third full.
As well as the European Space Agency, partners on the project included Global Marine Group, Map the Gaps, Teledyne CARIS, Woods Hole Group and the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 initiative.
