The speed and strength of the Atlantic circulatory currents (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC) affect the Earth’s climate. Small USVs such as AutoNaut can help gather data to monitor climate over time.

 

By Mike Poole

The autonomous vessel kaleidoscope is incorporating a changing focus as regulators step in. There’s more to come, which makes this a good time to illustrate tech advancements and their relationship to the regulatory landscape, with two recent examples of small USVs.

In this article, we report on the wave-propelled AutoNaut’s recent zero-carbon demo mission to collect a year’s worth of data from a sensor moored 1,800-m deep in the Rockall Trough and whiz it ashore via satellite in real time—then go back and allow scientists ashore to remotely recalibrate the moored sensor. A first, and all without needing a mothership.

We also report on a fleet of small AutoNaut USVs being used to improve hurricane forecasting, potentially saving thousands of lives.

It is important such benefits of new technology are factored into the thinking about new regulation because the world is also evolving in response to climate change. The U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) aims to become “world leading” in developing regulation for autonomous vessels. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is wrestling with the same regulation issue, but on a global scale, with a mandatory code expected in 2032.

It is not easy. Clearly, regulation is essential for a future that promises 40,000-ton freighters doing 18 kt. with no sailors on board. Technology hares ahead, while regulation goes carefully, carrying a shell comprising 250 years or more of maritime regulation that stretches back to square riggers.

It is not just new technology that needs splicing into this long-established framework. We need to look forward at our changing world by encouraging the benefits that uncrewed and autonomous vessels can bring to solving today and tomorrow’s problems and helping regulators work out how to de-risk autonomy. Climate change means we need to factor in sustainability, including phasing out fossil fuel-powered research ships.

 

A Sonardyne Fetch BPR was moored at 1,800-m depth in the Rockall Trough. (Credit: Ben Moat, U.K. National Oceanography Centre)

 

Zero-Carbon Operation

Propelled by waves, AutoNauts are zero carbon in operation. Working with the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), and funded by the U.K. Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through the Future Marine Research Infrastructure program, a 5-m AutoNaut was sent from the Isle of Mull on the west coast of Scotland out into the Atlantic to the Rockall Trough. There, it gathered data from a sensor moored 1,800-m deep, a Sonardyne Fetch bottom pressure recorder (BPR). The sensor mooring is designed to last 10 years, and the data are needed frequently, with a role to play by USVs.

There are hundreds of ocean floor sensors that could be tapped with this method, along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and in other oceans. If we are to begin to deal with the results of anthropogenic climate change, it is vital we monitor changes to ocean currents that determine the weather patterns of Europe and the rest of the world. Ideally, we will do so sustainably, looking beyond the usual preoccupation with lowest cost.

 

AutoNaut being prepared for launch. A Sonardyne HPT 3000 acoustic transceiver for through-water communication is mounted centrally, below the hull. The Thales VesseLINK 700/Iridium Certus satellite enabled scientists ashore to control the transceiver remotely. (Credit: Scottish Association for Marine Science, SAMS).

 

Monitoring Extreme Weather

Replacing manned, diesel-guzzling ships with USVs for the jobs that are dangerous, dirty and difficult is proving valuable. As recent weather events around the world demonstrate, tropical storms are becoming more extreme. The effects of climate change are causing increasing worry, due to the snail’s pace of change in reducing CO2 emissions and our politicians acting too slowly (or not acting at all).

 

Examples of readings from AutoNaut sensors for pressure and inclinometer. Data were recoded at 1-hr. intervals.

 

Barbados Meteorological Services (BMS) operates a fleet of four AutoNaut USVs that provide data to improve forecasting of the direction, speed and strength of incoming hurricanes. Two more USVs are in build.

The benefits of using USVs in a “hurricane watch” role should be factored into the new world of autonomous vessel regulation. A primary benefit is saving lives. Economic savings also flow from better early warning to agriculture and other industries and for protection of infrastructure. Crews are not put at risk when using USVs to monitor a hurricane, and USVs can capture accurate data on storm intensity (e.g., surface pressure, subsurface water temperatures, wind speed, humidity, dew point and wave data). Budgets tend to be limited, and small USVs that are easy to launch and operate can provide affordable data. USVs such as AutoNauts offer very long endurance, which allows for improved data sets and, thus, better forecasting.

 

An example from BMS radar that depicts two AutoNauts at sea, Ocean Hunter and Sabu, and the data they transmit in real time (www.barbadosweather.org/Radars/LeafScripts/BMSRadarProducts.php).

 

Aligning Tech Development with Regulations

While all these benefits might make using small USVs a no-brainer, there are several key issues that currently prevent small USVs from fulfilling their market potential because of a mismatch with existing regulations, such as COLREGs.

One is stability: For radar and cameras to be useful, you need “height of eye,” which necessitates one or more masts, with kit on them, all of which are vulnerable in a storm. Windage is another; speed is not important for the “hurricane watch” role, but survival is. An AutoNaut sized at 5 m, and other small USVs, will inevitably pitchpole and capsize when breaking wave crests are higher than the boat is long. Self-righting must be part of the design, and all the kit aloft will need to be balanced by ballast.

Power is another consideration for regulatory compliance. Long-term power is needed for the sensors, satellite communication, command and control, bilge pumps, AIS, etc. For very long endurance vessels, energy must be harvested on the fly, by photovoltaic panels or other means. Even new alternative fuel solutions provide limited endurance relative to the size of the fuel tank. Other factors to consider are areas of operation and traffic density, degrees of autonomy, and scaling risk against potential benefits, such as lives saved.

In the coming years, regulators will work their way toward solutions, with the help of the embryonic industry, just as regulations evolved for the aerial drone industry as it moved into consumer markets. Another test in the coming years will be to find ways to allow new autonomous technologies to be tested at sea without regulation stifling progress.

Mike Poole is the founding director of AutoNaut Ltd.