Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) Hydrographic Surveys by TerraSond Successful Implementation & Benefits

Transcription

1 Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) Hydrographic Surveys by TerraSond Successful Implementation & Benefits Shallow Survey 2018 October St. John's, NL A1C 6K4 Canada Stephen Forbes Consultant Hydrographer TerraSond

2 Presentation Contents A CHS Hydrographer s Brief History of Autonomous Vehicles Bedford Institute of Oceanography ( ) UNCLOS ( ) Why Autonomous Benefits Risks TerraSond & ASV Design & Production of a Hydrographic Autonomous Surface Vehicle (HUSV) Hydrographic Field Survey C-Worker 5 Field Surveys Successes / Lessons Learned Field Season 2018 Summary & Conclusions

3 A CHS Hydrographer s Unmanned Surface Vehicles for Bathymetry Collection A Brief Review Circa 1970 Development of an unmanned launch for hydrographic surveys. Circa 1983 Development of an unmanned underwater vehicle for hydrographic data (ISE BC). ARCS Arctic Research and Data Collection Submersible Semi-submersible unmanned vehicle for hydrographic surveys (ISE BC) Dolphin digital ocean platform for hydrographic information and navigation Used successfully with CSS Baffin collecting single beam sonar data Developed an unmanned submersible for under the ice surveys arctic (ISE-BC) Support for United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Article 76 DREA and NRCan shared ownership Collected multi-beam data under ice Eastern Arctic

4 Post Successful Unmanned Vehicle Development Key technology advances in; Processor 1.0 to 3.0 GHz and high bus speeds Memory size and speed Compact multi-gbyte solid state and digital disk drives Low power consumption processors, memory and data storage Improved battery technology lithium-ion, etc. Overall miniaturisation of power sources and chips Low real estate requirement for electronics Supports additional onboard systems for vehicle status and control / data collection systems A combined recipe for success

5 TerraSond and ASV Prototype USV 2015 TerraSond Established in 1994 Specializes in precision measurements on and below land and the ocean Personnel of 100+ including Hydrographers & Oceanographers, Geophysicists & Geologists, Professional Land Surveyors Provides products and services to private and public clients for example; Offshore Oil & Gas, Cable surveys, Offshore Wind Farm site survey, NOAA data acquisition, processing capabilities for all sensor data, production and maintenance services for nautical products including NOAA charts and digital products ASV unmanned marine systems Established 8 years ago Leading supplier of Unmanned & Autonomous Marine Systems Autonomous Surface Vehicles - all shapes and sizes for Military, Security, Offshore Energy and Scientific applications Services include production, lease, research and development, training, operations AS has delivered 90 systems to 40 customers in 10 countries

6 Why automated unmanned vehicles Benefits Risks Efficiency Productivity Safety Loss of time due to maintenance Loss of data if memory / computer failure Damage to or loss of vehicle in uncharted / poorly charted waters

7 TerraSond & ASV - SUV for Hydrographic Data Key objectives in 2015 Equip and deploy a modified AUV from ASV to collect hydrographic single beam data for NOAA in a production survey Bering Strait, AK. Use a home vessel to simultaneously survey and monitor the AUV as both vehicles collected data. R/V Qualifier 105, a 105 research vessel, and 12 AS run survey lines Vehicle Converted C3 target drone Length 12 feet, weight 800 pounds Equipped with necessary instrumentation Hydrographic survey suite

8 Survey Area and USV Production Goal Cape Prince of Wales Shoal Client NOAA Single beam Project area was 4000 LNM USV goal set at 20% of total survey area i.e. 800 LNM

9 Challenges and Results Communication with the vehicle was problematic sometimes Line tracking was poor Deployment and recovery from ship was difficult This was a safety issue during rough seas and contributed to the lower production numbers for the vehicle

10 Lessons Learned for 2016 Survey Design a new vehicle Design a robust and safer launch and recovery system LARS to address the single point overhead crane for deployment / recovery Improve the communications between ship and vehicle Larger vehicle larger payload, longer endurance

11 Development of C-Worker 5 (CW5) Length 18 feet Beam 5.5 feet Weight 4,200 pounds Endurance 5 7 knots Transportable Placement on vessel deck(s) Deployment & recovery Improved line tracking & communications

12 Launch & Recovery System (LARS) Gravity davit type deployment / recovery Safer Better vehicle management in adverse weather and sea conditions Two-point attach and lift

13 Project Area 2016 Etolin Strait Etolin Strait Goal: 30% completed with AS 8 Sheets, 570 square NM 5,200 LNM required: 3,050 sidescan with concurrent multibeam 2,150 set-spaced multibeam Project Area

14 Project Area 2016 Etolin Strait ASV tested in Louisiana USA & trucked to Alaska Mobilization for the survey in Homer, Alaska on the Q105 Qualifier LARS installed Communications system installed Q105 & vehicle Vehicle, software, control systems installed Vehicle deployed and tested with Reson multi-beam sonar and Edgetech towed sidescan ASV control room setup in a 16 foot container Q105 Qualifier Homer, AK

15 Operations Endurance longest period 4 days Deployment, data collection and recovery up to 6 foot seas ASV personnel (2) responsible for CW5 operation TerraSond personnel responsible for data collection and quality assurance ASV systems monitored by continuous telemetry via radio feed and streaming camera

16 Launching and Recovering the AUS

17 Results of the 2016 Survey Survey Area not Safe for Q105 Collected Data Compared well between Vessels

18 Line tracking was excellent Results ASV Q105 V

19 2016 USV Data Collection The vehicle collected 2275 LNM (44% of the project sonar collection) The objective was to collect 30% of the data in 2016 so the vehicle exceeded expectations The USV was remarkably reliable and up time was in excess of 90% Estimated days of field effort saved based on time required to complete the project

20 Challenges / Lessons Learned Side Scan winch problematic The side scan auto deploy and recovery system on the USV caused problems including tow cable failures Telemetry system could not transfer data in real time Compromises the length of time the surveyors will run the vehicle continuously because in case of a major failure the data loss after 7 days would be costly. Identified Improvements for 2017 On the fly data transfer Improve the radio communication link between ship and vehicle to provide a longer range

21 2017: Pavlof Islands Project Project Area 274 NM 2 survey area NM of coastline

22 Pavlof Islands Same survey vessels Multi-beam sonar only Same launch and recovery system (LARS) Improvements radios masts radar added

23 Challenging Survey Region Poorly charted and uncharted areas Fishing activity floating and submerged gear created visual challenges Abundance of rocks and shoals Rocky / rugged coastline

24 Summary of 2017 Pavlov Islands Project Collected 2,570 LNM (54% of the project mileage) Surveyed nearshore, rocky areas not reachable with the larger vessel Radio range and data transfer rates were improved over prior years

25 2017 Challenges and Lessons learned High dependence on remote human operators for working in shallow or complex areas Obstacle detection and avoidance requires forward looking sonar Real time sharing of survey data between vessels did not work Need progress in: Collision avoidance (both surface and subsurface) Automated coordination with other survey vessel(s)

26 Aleutian Islands Survey 2018 Survey Area on the SE side of Unimak Island Area was 404 square nautical miles Survey period was 6 weeks The Q105 Qualifier 105 and C-Worker 5 collected 5751 LNM of data in total The unmanned vehicle collected 53% of the data

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28 Summary In four years ( ) TerraSond and ASV successively deployed and used an AUV with a home vessel to collect hydrographic data in production surveys. Through a process of continuous improvement i.e. the AUV control, collection and communication between home vessel & vehicle and deployment / recovery, data link, etc. the AUV survey production increased significantly each year. Year 2015 prototype delivered 5% Year 2016 C-Worker 5 delivered 44% and the goal was 30% Year 2017 C-Worker 5 delivered 53% Year 2018 C-Worker 5 delivered 53% The vehicle has proven to be reliable, excellent line keeping and sea kindly (up to 6 foot seas) and productive collection of high quality data for TerraSond client(s). The vehicle has met and exceeded the 2016 criteria. Eureka Success!

29 Conclusions The development from a modified 12 foot ASV / TerraSond prototype to a specifically co-designed AUV 18 foot with higher payload and endurance is a proven success The vehicle in tandem with a home vessel has delivered; High quality data collection Has exceeded the home vessel production in 2018 Proven to be useful in deep or shallow shoal / rock infested waters areas the Q105 could not safely survey Met the improved safety for hydrographic surveying lives are not put at risk surveying in dangerous ocean and near shore shallow water. The survey endurance (5-7 days) is more than adequate The reliability of the vehicle is obvious given the production level

30 Now here is a Shallow Water Survey!

31 Acknowledgements I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the contribution of the TerraSond team Special mention; Andrew Orthmann Extensive cartographic and hydrographic experience, leadership, innovation Thomas Newman Scott Chomeledy Leadership, foresight, innovation, persistence Manager of hydrographic projects, solid advice, hard working, team player

32 Conclusions Force multiplier effect; Using more than one vehicle will increase production and the resource requirement to operate multiple vehicles is non- linear i.e. three USV do not require three times the person resources Paves the future for larger, automated unmanned or manned vehicles for hydrographic and scientific data collection During the past four years the vehicle has collected approximately 15,000 LNM A first for USV production!

33 That s all folks! Questions??