Dynautics Ltd., a developer of marine and submarine technologies, has announced the release of its new SPECTRE Autopilot Module for converting small electric boats into unmanned surface vessels (USVs) at Oceanology International 2018.
The SPECTRE Autopilot has been incorporated into a convenient module which provides a self-contained remote control system suitable for a small electric boat. Small survey boats typically have twin electric thrusters and a steering servo, and the basic configuration uses a standard remote control handset to drive motors and steering via PWM signals. The SPECTRE module augments the capability by adding autopilot and mission planning functionality.
The complete module includes:
- The MicroSPECTRE autopilot module
- Standard PWM inputs from the basic handset
- PWM outputs to thrusters and steering servo
- A radio modem, selectable between 450MHz (Frequency dependent on geographic location), 800MHz or 2.4GHz.
- Ability to be controlled from a laptop, allowing control of waypoints, and real time display of position and data on a plan view, superimposed on a chart or Geotiff
The radio modem options include 450 MHz, with a range up to 5 miles (line of sight), up to 2.4GHz which offers up to 400 metres line of sight.
Optional features include an on-board datalogger, which will store up to 32GB of GPS, heading, attitude and sensor data on a MicroSD card as raw input and as a csv file.
Dr. Henry Robinson, founder and CEO of Dynautics, stated: “We have seen an increase in the development of smaller electrically powered vehicles and we have pioneered the use of low power electronics to meet our customer needs.”
