Guiding an unmanned vessel

U.K.-based Unmanned Survey Solutions (USS) has created a unique unmanned surface vessel called the Accession Class USV. It’s modular design offers three variable boat lengths depending on the desired application. The base boat length of 3.5 m can be extended to 4.25 m or 5 m by adding additional hull sections.

The standard USV configuration includes sensors for meeting International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) special-order surveys. The sensors consist of an R2Sonic SONIC 2024 multibeam sonar; an SBG Apogee Navsight Inertial + GNSS solution, and a Valeport MiniSVS and Swift SVP for measuring sound velocity.

Image: Unmanned Survey Solutions

The data is acquired in either Hypack or QINSy hydrographic software and used for mission planning, data acquisition, post processing and final products. Designed for operations in both nearshore and offshore environments, the autonomous platform is safer and more cost-effective than comparative manned vessels, USS said.

Image: Unmanned Survey Solutions

Although the Accession USV is payload agnostic and fully customer configurable, the standard configuration can also be interfaced with a mobile lidar such as the Carlson Merlin laser scanner for mapping terrestrial structures to create a full 3D point cloud above and below the water. This is achievable because of the embedded SBG inertial navigation system (INS), which is extremely versatile for both shallow or deeper water regions as well as challenging GNSS environments such as under bridges. In such situations, the centimeter-level RTK position accuracy is greatly improved using the SBG’s Qinertia post-processing software. This PPP- and PPK-capable software offers single or virtual base-station modes and can even incorporate users’ own base-station RINEX data.

“Not only did we want to create an autonomous vessel specifically for surveyors, but we also wanted to incorporate the latest advanced sensor technologies,” said James Williams, USS director. “It was also extremely important that the final combined solution had a low CO2 footprint and was more cost effective than similar manned vessels.”