ASV delivers first mobile station keeping buoy
Engineers from Portsmouth UK based Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASV) Ltd have travelled to Tohoku University in Japan to hand over C-Stat 2, the first autonomous mobile station keeping buoy.
Designed and developed by ASV, the buoy will be used by the University to help predict earthquakes off the Japanese coast. The C-Stat hull is made of aluminium with a PU coated closed cell foam fender and is powered by a hybrid diesel-electric drive system. An integral fuel tank provides an endurance of four and a half days in currents of up to 3.5knots and over 20 days in lower speed currents such as 1.5-2 knots.
The vessel can be controlled by a UHF data link for line of site control or a satellite link for global control. The portable control console comes with a hand held controller for close quarters manoeuvring when launching and retrieving alongside a ship or harbour wall.
