The UK's 12m Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) Maxlimer has made an impressive demonstration of the future of robotic maritime operations, completing a 22-day mission to map the Atlantic seabed.
SEA-KIT International, the company that developed this apparatus, controlled the entire process via satellite from their base in Tollesbury in the east of England. The mission was partially funded by the European Space Agency. Robotic ships in the future promise to radically change approaches to the development of the sea.
Many large research companies using traditional crewed ships have already begun to invest heavily in new remote control technologies. Freight carriers are also recognizing the economic benefits of operating robotic ships. But remote control has yet to prove practicality and security in order to be widely accepted. That was precisely the task of Maxlimer.
The ship left Plymouth at the end of July and headed to the work site 460 km to the southwest. Equipped with a multi-beam echo sounder attached to the hull, the boat mapped over 1000 sq. km of the continental shelf at a depth of about a kilometer. For this segment of the seabed, there was practically no modern data recorded by the British Hydrographic Office. SEA-KIT wanted to send a ship across the Atlantic to America as part of a demonstration, but the COVID-19 crisis made that impossible.
βThe overall goal of the project was to demonstrate the capabilities of modern technology to explore the underexplored seas, and despite the planning challenges we faced due to COVID-19, I feel like we did it. We have proven the ability to control the vessel via satellite and the capabilities of our design - the crew is tired but in high spirits," said SEA-KIT International CTO Peter Walker.
The USV Maxlimer was originally developed for the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE competition, which it won. It aimed to identify next-generation technologies that could be used to map the ocean floor. Four-fifths of the seafloor has yet to be explored at acceptable resolution. Robotic solutions will be quite useful in this task.
Maxlimer uses a communications and control system known as Global Situational Awareness that operates over the Internet. It allows the operator to remotely access video footage from CCTV cameras, thermal cameras and radars, as well as listen live to the surroundings and even communicate with nearby ships.
Maxlimer connects to three independent satellite systems to stay in touch with the control room in Tollesbury. The robot moves slowly, at speeds up to 4 knots (7 km / h), but the hybrid diesel-electric power plant is very efficient.
SEA-KIT chief executive and designer Ben Simpson told BBC News: βWe carefully calculated how much fuel would be left in the tank. We thought that there would be 300-400 liters. It turned out that there are still 1300 liters. In other words, the Maxlimer returned to Plymouth with a fuel tank about a third full.
In addition to the European Space Agency, project partners included Global Marine Group, Map the Gaps, Teledyne CARIS, Woods Hole Group and the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 initiative. Another partner was Fugro, one of the world's largest marine geotechnical companies. It recently announced a contract with SEA-KIT to acquire a fleet of unmanned vessels for use in exploration work in the oil and gas and wind energy sectors.
Source:
Source: 3dnews.ru