Autonomous Surface Vehicles from Seafloor Systems Update
Seafloor Systems has, earlier this year, extended their line of Autonomous Surface Vehicles, developed for hydrographic survey applications. The EchoBoat-ASV is a multi-payload, remotely and autonomously controlled survey boat, featuring portability, improved thrust, and large payload capacity. The HyDrone-ASV is a remotely and autonomously controlled singlebeam survey catamaran platform for bathymetric surveying.
The survey vehicles can be monitored while under way, in both Auto and Manual modes, while within line-of-sight range. The mission planner application runs on a base station laptop, connected through a radio telemetry link, and displays the vehicle’s graphical positioning and progress against a background map of the survey area. Battery voltage, current, and capacity remaining may be monitored via this link.
Switching from autonomous to remote control is easy using a high-power remote control system that offers up to 2km range, with a survey endurance of over 10km (8 miles) on a single battery pack.
