Applications for Multifunctional unmanned Surface Vehicles in Marine Copastal Environments

Abstract

The unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) were developed to carry out the various maritime applications. We modified WAM-V, one of the USVs, for very shallow coastal water investigation. The field survey was carried out after proper operation tests of the main and auxiliary machinery including steering, communication and transducer/sensor modules parts for the maneuverability and bathymetric survey capabilities of WAM-V. Limitation of RF communication distances (up to 4 km) was solved by installing LTE communication (up to 20 km) in parallel. The bathymetric survey was carried out 76.8 line km in the 5.7 x 2.6 km range along the coastal line and covered extremely shallow water as up to 1.2 m depth. Detailed survey of the area has required considerable time and effort to cover the seabed due to the relatively narrow beam swath. Especially, exposed rock bed and nets just under the surface-water are interfering with this survey. The obtained bathymetric data served as a basis for coastal erosion management in east coast of Korea. We are currently trying to install another equipments such as ADCP, CTD, side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiler on the WAM-V.on tests of the main and auxiliary machinery including steering, communication and transducer/sensor modules parts for the maneuverability and bathymetric survey capabilities of WAM-V. Limitation of RF communication distances (up to 4 km) was solved by installing LTE communication (up to 20 km) in parallel. The bathymetric survey was carried out 76.8 line km in the 5.7 x 2.6 km range along the coastal line and covered extremely shallow water as up to 1.2 m depth. Detailed survey of the area has required considerable time and effort to cover the seabed due to the relatively narrow beam swath. Especially, exposed rock bed and nets just under the surface-water are interfering with this survey. The obtained bathymetric data served as a basis for coastal erosion management in east coast of Korea. We are currently trying to install another equipments such as ADCP, CTD, side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiler on the WAM-V.