Autonomous Vehicle Completes Survey Mission off Alaska

An autonomous surface vessel recently went the distance for a hydrographic survey mission along a remote stretch of Alaskan coastline.

ASV Global and TerraSond said they recently completed a hydrographic survey for charting off the coast of Alaska. The 10,649km survey was carried out by an ASV Global C-Worker 5 unmanned vessel alongside the Q105 survey ship acting as the mother vessel. Fitted with a multibeam echosounder, the C-Worker 5 carried out 53 percent of the survey.

Throughout the operation the C-Worker 5 was remotely monitored using ASV Global’s ASView control system from a station on TerraSond’s mother ship. ASView used exported .dxf survey lines from the TerraSond survey planning system to autonomously execute an accurate survey with minimal human intervention.

The operation, which marks ASV Global and TerraSond’s fourth unmanned charting survey for NOAA in as many years, brings the total unmanned survey lines completed to nearly 15,000km.

Larry Karl, VP and General Manager of ASV Global stated, “The C-Worker 5 once again proved itself to be a reliable unmanned vessel for survey with line following precision and excellent sea-keeping ability.”

Andrew Orthmann, Charting Program Manager, TerraSond, said, “The ASV C-Worker 5 was once again advantageous to our charting work for NOAA along a remote stretch of Aleutian Islands coastline. It was productive in an offshore capacity, but also effective when working close to rugged, rocky shoreline with an abundance of uncharted navigational hazards. It allowed us to reduce risk to our personnel while still obtaining the seafloor data important to our client.”

C-Worker 5
Length: 5.5m
Beam: 1.7m
Draft: 0.9m
Height: 1.8m
Weight: 1350kg lightship
Propulsion: Direct driver fixed propeller 1 x Yanmar 57hp diesel engine
Speed: Up to 10 knots
Endurance: Up to 7 days at 7 knots
Payload capacity: 20kg (on pole); 35kg (in 19" rack)
Payload power: 1kW
Control: ASView for direct, semi-autonomous or autonomous control
Communications: IP Radio