Design of an Unmanned Catamaran with Pollutant Tracking and Surveying Capabilities

An unmanned catamaran named Springer is being developed by the Marine and Industrial Dynamic Analysis Research Group at the University of Plymouth to conduct environmental and geographical surveys in shallow waters. An equally important secondary role envisaged for Springer is as a platform for other marine research groups to test their own systems onboard the vehicle. This paper highlights Springer hardware and software architecture including various navigational sensors, speed controller and an environmental monitoring unit. Details regarding the development of a fault tolerant multi-sensor data fusion technique are also outlined. Moreover, control strategy based on a linear quadratic Gaussian with loop transfer recovery theory is presented which would be implemented in Springer for track keeping