What's next for the Pentagon after the Replicator programme?
Although the Replicator initiative has made several accomplishments, there are still multiple gaps to plug across the US Department of Defense (DoD) and its services.
ASV Global continues trials under ASSSS project
ASV Global is continuing to carry out trials for the Autonomous Surface and Sub-surface Survey System (ASSSS) collaborative research project, the company announced on 16 May.
Led by ASV Global, the ASSSS project intends to deliver an integrated system to provide a means of conducting low cost, shore based, full water column marine surveys using multiple unmanned systems for offshore energy applications, deep sea mining prospecting and carbon capture and storage monitoring.
The project combines the advantages of AUVs and ASVs to further data gathering opportunities. The ASV follows the AUV in order to provide position updates to improve dead reckoning whilst the AUV provides status updates
and basic survey information back to the ASV to be transmitted to shore.
The project team involving SeeByte, Sonardyne and the National Oceanography Centre are now carrying out further trials in Loch Ness in Scotland.The trials are building upon the capability demonstrated in two previous trials in 2017. The initial trial in May 2017 saw the C-Worker 5 ASV successfully communicate with and track the Autosub Long Range (ALR) AUV over a six day period. Trials in September carried out in Plymouth focused on gathering solstice side scan data for sea floor mapping using the ALR and transmitting real-time snippets of the data containing interesting features back to the ASV using the BlueComm 200 underwater optical communications system.
The demonstrations have also included the launch and recovery of the ASV and AUV from a 6T SWL hydraulic crane on MTS Terramare, a 26m converted landing craft, in order to prove the application and capability of the ASSSS system for smaller survey operations.
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