“The concept of a long-range USV is something Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) has been working on for several years now,” said PML Chief Executive Professor Icarus Allen, talking exclusively to ON&T.
“PML has extensive experience of working with autonomous data collection platforms, such as our moored data buoys and smaller devices like our Autonaut USV and fleet of EcoSub autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and this collective insight has built a strong foundation and vision for what the team are aiming to achieve next: a rugged USV capable of performing long-endurance oceanographic survey missions in remote environments.”
The growing acceptance of USVs for marine survey—as well as other at-sea operations—is well documented. Traditional research vessels are expensive to build and operate. Research trips need to be crewed and can often be logistically challenging.
And, of course, they leave an environmental footprint. USVs present a viable solution, and in recent years, there has been a clear step forward in the development and application of autonomy and artificial intelligence (AI) systems capable of allowing a vessel to operate and navigate independently in open waters. However, many of the commercially available USVs are restricted in their range.
“Balancing the payload capacity with required endurance, both in terms of power consumption and survivability, was the key to ensuring that Oceanus would be capable of supporting the types of research that PML and our partners are targeting with long-range USVs,” added Professor Allen.
ADVANCING OCEAN RESEARCH
As a fully uncrewed asset, the USV must be resilient enough to survive the often harsh and unpredictable conditions found in the Atlantic, and so the engineering team felt that a self-righting monohull design was the best form. Oceanus will be outfitted with a comprehensive range of advanced sensors and marine instrumentation to enable the USV to gather and process unprecedented levels of data and information needed to meaningfully advance studies into critical marine scientific areas.
Oceanus collaborators see the role of USVs as instrumental to the future scaling of such research. In short, the more data we can harvest and process, the more we can further our understanding of marine environments. Ultimately, Oceanus—and future long-endurance USVs of this category—will rapidly accelerate our working knowledge of ocean stressors, climate change impacts, biodiversity, gasses, biogeochemical cycles, and a range of other key marine research areas.
“For the breadth and scope of the work we need to undertake to sustainably and cost-effectively better understand the evolving role of the planet’s ocean, we need USVs capable of carrying out transatlantic research expeditions,” Brett Phaneuf, President of MSubs, told ON&T.
TRIED & TESTED BLUEPRINT
Some of the Oceanus’ design considerations were informed by the Mayflower Autonomous Ship, or MAS400, which was also built by MSubs and supported by IBM and Promare, and in 2022, completed an uncrewed crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth Massachusetts. Many of the learnings of this landmark project—which was seven years in the making—provided invaluable insights into the right approach to Oceanus.
“We garnered so much from MAS400, with some hard, unexpected lessons learned along the way about what was going to break and what was robust beyond expectation,” Brett Phaneuf recalled. “Also, MAS400 represented years of dedication to designing autonomy software—it was a grueling test about safety, resilience, and performance of the code, as well as its integration with sophisticated robotic systems working in the most hostile environment imaginable.”
The legacy of the Mayflower lives on in this latest USV, the name inspired by the only child born on the ship during its grueling 10-week transatlantic journey to the New World back in 1620.
REMOTE OPERATIONS
The Command Center for Oceanus will be hosted at PML and will display oceanographic conditions in near-real time across the ship’s transect, providing scientists and other users with open access to the latest and most robust oceanographic data.
How is the USV able to effectively navigate itself? After embarking on a journey, the ship’s onboard computer system takes over as an “AI” captain. Fully equipped with sensors, radars, and cameras, AI is used to independently monitor and navigate the USV’s immediate environment. That data, combined with additional inputs such as weather forecasting, nautical charts, and GPS will allow the USV to make smart decisions, such as bypassing other vessels and hazards and rerouting to avoid dangerous weather.
In-situ sampling will still be needed at times to validate the collected data and to perform more complex experiments that require proximity to the sample sources. However, autonomy on this scale will allow for radically more responsive and more frequent data collections at a wider range than is currently possible, helping to plug any gaps in datasets and greatly improve marine modeling. The ambition is not to replace the role of the scientist on a research mission but to greatly increase the data they have access to and the work they can carry out.
LOOKING FORWARD
Oceanus should enter the build phase later in 2024. PML and partners are hoping to have the USV ready for deployment in 2025, and, in the meantime, the consortium is seeking additional partners for collaboration and funding support.
As USV technology continues to advance, so do our expectations for uncrewed missions. The last word goes to PML Chief Executive Professor Icarus Allen:
“Oceanus is really science fiction becoming science fact. For over two decades we have operated the Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) on which scientists undertake biological, chemical, and physical oceanographic research during an annual voyage between the UK and destinations in the South Atlantic. The exam question we set ourselves was whether we could replicate that mission using autonomous technologies. Oceanus will make that a reality.”
This story was originally featured in ON&T Magazine’s May 2024 issue. Click here to read more.
