Design and automation of an ocean-going autonomously acting USV

Unmanned surface vehicles (USV) increasingly gain importance in all areas of marine engineering and natural sciences. Different measuring vehicles are used for short-term measurements with various adaptable sensors. The operation time of these vehicles is limited to few hours. Moreover, long endurance vehicles were designed for long-term missions, generating energy from solar, wind or waves, which are suitable for low-power applications. This paper describes the conceptual design and automation aspects of an innovative ocean-going autonomously acting unmanned surface vehicle. As the vehicle should act as communication node for deep-sea communication up to 6.000 meters, the main challenge is designing a low noise vehicle with reduced motions in waves. The vehicle is supposed to operate autonomously for at least one week. Hence, a hybrid energy system has been designed using batteries and a fuel cell. The automation system allows the vehicle to solve missions in a full autonomous way with minimum operator intervention. The paper closes with aspects of the vehicle construction and first trials.