Germans develop smart commercial UV systems

In Kiel, Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TMS) and partners in industry and science have been awarded Government funding totalling €13.2 million for the second phase of the Modifiable Underwater Mothership  (MUM) project to develop an unmanned, underwater workboat for commercial use. Total project costs are put at some €35 million with Berlin putting up €22 million.

Handing over the latest funding German Maritime Co-ordinator Norbert Brackmann said “… Pipelines and cables run on the seabed. Maritime infrastructure needs to be built and maintained. With the MUM vehicles … this work is safer, faster and also more cost-effective”.

The MUM concept has been under study since 2017 and is seen as setting a new standard for future unmanned underwater work.

It is planned to build and test a modular demonstrator vehicle of about 25m length from 2023. Planned is a system for a variety of civil maritime applications including payload transport and deployment, the exploration of hard-to-reach sea areas like the Arctic, as well as offshore applications.

The planned underwater systems will have electrical main energy and be powered by emission-free hydrogen fuel cells. Where needed, power supply can be supported by a Lithium-ion battery module. Regardless of wind and weather, MUMs will work around the clock and 365 days a year. They will, reportedly, also be tailor-made.

In Wilhelmshaven, scientists at that port city’s Jade University of Applied Sciences have meanwhile unveiled an autonomous underwater vehicle system for commercial use. It has been developed during a four year research project called EITAMS funded with €1.5 million by the Volkswagen Foundation.

The university said hydraulic structures like port and offshore facilities placed complex demands on maintenance and monitoring which could often be solved with remote-controlled or autonomous underwater vehicles. It unveiled a test platform based on an autonomously operating surface vehicle which controls a ‘swarm’ of self-drive, interlinked underwater vehicles.

In further research, university departments with differing specialities worked on sub-areas of the main project. One looked at vehicle operation in unknown or hard to reach underwater areas while another developed intelligent strategies for UVs to react to unexpected situations.