Autonomous Surface Vehicle’s C-Worker USV

The C-Worker is an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) designed for offshore services in the O&G industry. The multi-role offshore USV is designed to conduct subsea positioning, surveying and environmental monitoring without the need of a ship on station or seabed anchoring. Autonomous Surface Vehicles Ltd (ASV Ltd) is a UK company and part of Global Fusion, a privately owned international marine services group based in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA.

The small robust design incorporates an aluminum self-righting hull that makes the vehicle suitable for harsh ocean environments. At only 5.85 meters in length, a beam of 2.2 meters and a height of 4.75 meter with its mast extended, this USV is a much cheaper and compact option for some offshore jobs that today are done by much larger vessels. With it’s small size and weight of 5 tons with payload, a fleet of the USVs can be controlled by a mother ship. C-Worker has a 30-day endurance at an average speed of 4 knots and houses fully redundant power propulsion and communication systems.

The C-Worker USV is capable of integrating an assortment of payloads including USBL, ADCP, CTD, and Multi-beam Sonars via exchangeable payload frames. The vehicle utilizes an integrated navigation sensor suite comprised of color and light cameras, an infrared pan tilt camera and an x-band marine radar. Custom payloads can be developed by ASV or by customers who are supplied an empty payload frame and a software interface specification. Just a few days ago ASV’s C-Worker 6 successfully completed a seabed transponder calibration in 1300m deep waters at the GoM in rough conditions with 2.5m waves. ASV also has a second C-Worker on sea trials, which are taking place in the UK.

The C-Worker’s propultion system is composed of 2 diesel generator sets 13kW each, which drive two 10kW electrical propulsion azimuth pods via a battery bank. It can go for 30 days at 4knots or 10 days at 6+knots. Its control systems include Manual or Autopilot control via ASView+ control system. Communications is via line of sight radio systems or satellite for over the horizon operations. Its integrated suite of navigation sensors includes GPS, AIS, radar, day and night vision cameras, weather station and motion reference unit. The onboard system allows for full payload integration with data storage and feedback.