What, where and when? – New opportunies for marine autonomous operaons


Geraint West Sonardyne Internaonal Ltd


With increasing adopon of marine autonomous systems (MAS) in the defence, science and commercial sectors, the value of these is ulmately dictated by the ability to posion and communicate with them; and increasingly, to synchro‐ nise mulple plaorms. With increasing adopon of marine autonomous systems (MAS) in the defence, science and commercial sectors, the value of these is


ulmately dictated by the ability to posion and communicate with them; and increasingly, to synchronise mulple plaorms.


This is not a one‐size‐fits‐all issue though as end‐users have to balance navigaon precision and data volume priories with the physical constraints of the plaorms and environments in which


they are operang. Rapid evoluon of the technologies required to address these challenges connues to open up new applicaons for autonomous systems.


While the theme of ‘dark, dirty and dangerous’, shaped the adopon of many early Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), the rapidly increasing use of both AUV and Unmanned Surface Vessels (USV) is increasingly driven by the economics of data acquision in areas and situaons where manned assets are either unsuitable or costly; parcularly in situaons where geographical coverage or meliness is an issue. The flaw in this though is that high precision navigaon and high bandwidth communicaons oen mean sacrificing payload and/or power, which can crically undermine the case for using MAS. The consequence has been that manned vessels operang Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) have connued to hold sway in many end‐user cases, parcularly where a man‐in‐the‐loop has been required for decision‐making, which is frequently the driver for high bandwidth telemetry.


Mobile laser mapping of


WWII U576 (Image courtesy of 2G Robocs)


24


Society of Marime Industries Handbook & Members’ Directory 2018


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56