Unmanned surface vessels under development
Claiming to be the world’s first commercial survey company to offer autonomous unmanned surface vessels as a platform for a broad spectrum of operations, newly-formed Unmanned Survey Solutions (USS) of Tavistock, UK says it is now working closely with manufacturers of USVs on a number of developments designed to meet specific hydrographic requirements.
The ventures, according to company founder, Andrew Waddington, a former Royal Navy hydrographer and commanding officer of HMS Echo and HMS Walney, are in response to a changing survey industry moving away from current manned operations to reduce costs and increase safety. These new challenges, he adds, can be met by utilising state-of-the-art MUSVs either as stand-alone systems or in conjunction with manned parent vessels to double or even triple survey efficiencies.
Company support for vehicles fitted with a multitude of payload equipment will include every aspect of survey operations from planning and data acquisition to post-processing and final production of fully-referenced datasets with complete reporting to industry-standard format and client-specified criteria. Port and harbour authorities as well as offshore oil and gas, near-shore and coastal survey users are forseen as likely customers for services “designed to increase productivity and value without compromising on quality and standards”.
By David Goodfellow
