SeaWASP: A Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull Autonomous Platform for Shallow Water Mapping

Abstract

A B S T R A C TStudents with Santa Clara University (SCU) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) are developing an innovative platform for shallow water bathymetry. Bathymetry data is used to analyze the geography, ecosystem, and health of marine habitats. Current methods for shallow water measurements typically involve large manned vessels that are costly to operate and that may pose a danger to themselves and the environment in shallow, semi-navigable waters. Small vessels, however, are prone to disturbances by shallow water waves, tides, and currents, thereby requiring more instrumentation and computation to accurately process bathymetric data. The SCU/MBARI autonomous surface vessel, SeaWASP, is designed to operate safely and stably in waters as shallow as 1 m without significant manned support in order to produce costeffective and high-quality bathymetric maps.The SeaWASP design introduces several key design innovations in order to provide high-quality maps with a platform that is safe, stable, and inexpensive. A small waterplane area twin hull (SWATH) design features a submerged dual hull, a small waterplane area, and a high mass-to-damping ratio, thereby making the craft less prone to disturbances. Precision sensing, autonomous control, and platform-level configuration planning and control algorithms are used to navigate the boat along desirable trajectories in support of efficient map generation and to implement low-cost unpiloted operations. Bathymetry is measured with multibeam sonar in concert with Doppler Velocity Logger and GPS sensors.

Modular Multi-Domain Aware Autonomous Surface Vehicle for Inspection

“…The work of Bingham et al [14] characterizes a wave glider capable of acquiring underwater data, such as animal detection and seafloor depth estimation, using passive and active acoustic sensors. Moreover,Beck et al [15] developed a twin hull autonomous platform, the SeaWasp, for shallow water mapping using a multibeam sonar from Imagenex. The ROAZ, a catamaran ASV, proposed by Ferreira et al [16] allows the acquisition of bathymetric data from shallow water environments and water-land interface zones using a Tritech echo sounder.…”

U-SWATH: An innovative USV design towards the extended ship

“…The SWATH displacement is placed beneath the waves and this allows to maintain a quasi-horizontal position in wave heights up to the distance between the hulls and the platform substantially reducing the ship's motions. Although the adoption of SWATH technology was already theorised in USV by Brizzolara et al (2011) and used by other research groups in smaller USV like Beck et al (2008), U-SWATH is the first medium-size USV using the SWATH technology for multi-purpose scopes including cooperation and marsupial robotics activities. The SWATH hull remains under the water surface and the benefits of this technology are minimal resistance and maximum sea-worthiness.…”

Robust and Optimal Control Designed for Autonomous Surface Vessel Prototypes

“…It is possible to find applications in lakes, rivers and open seas. Activities can range from water and harbor monitoring [4], shallow water hydrological survey [5], maritime search and rescue [6], bathymetric mapping [7], and many other applications [8].…”