C-Enduro begins sea trials

The trials, which were attended by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and Royal Navy personnel, saw the C-Enduro operate autonomously and follow a number of courses set out by the company’s control system.

ASV says the C-Enduro brings a step change in oceanographic data collection, with an endurance of up to three months enabled by its environmentally-friendly power structure.

The vehicle can support up to 500 watts of payload power and can be used for a number of applications including marine environmental surveying to security and defence roles.

It was developed under the UK Government-backed Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI).

ASV undertook the detailed production design, build and commissioning of the fully operational, open ocean going vessel. The vehicle uses state of the art technologies and was designed to operate in coastal or open ocean weather conditions, currents and sea states.

The vehicle centres on a ‘three-pillar’ energy system providing a flexible and fault tolerant solution to energy supply. The team selected solar panels, a wind generator and a lightweight diesel generator.