STABLE’s stabilized drone platform technology has been successfully incorporated into an integrated UAV/USV (unmanned aerial vehicle/unmanned surface vessel) system that has been developed for continuous monitoring and detection of oil spills at sea.
The ARIEL system, developed by maritime solutions provider TideWise, is part of an R&D project executed in partnership with oil company Repsol Sinopec Brasil and robotics specialist GSCAR – COPPE/UFRJ through the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels financing scheme. The two autonomous unmanned systems work collaboratively to efficiently detect and identify oil spills without the need for any human operators.
STABLE’s technology neutralizes the effects of the roll and pitch movements inflicted upon a vessel by dynamic marine environments. These movements are estimated based on sensor signals, and the platform is automatically adjusted by computer-controlled actuators. The stabilized drone platform enables high-accuracy takeoff and landing for drones operating from these vessels.
Rafael Coelho, Managing Director of TideWise, commented: “One of the project’s main challenges was accomplishing a safe UAV landing on a moving USV. Based upon a bespoke flexible design, with low power consumption, long time stabilization references and a proactive engineering team, the STABLE platform was selected for our project as it removed most of the rolling and pitching motions to secure a successful landing.”
Rune M. Eriksen, CSO and Partner at STABLE, said: “It has been a unique experience for STABLE to adopt our stabilization technology on board a boat of less than 5m length. The professional TideWise team was a pleasure to work with, and the combined resources and intellect successfully enabled autonomous drone operation on a small vessel.”
Watch a video about the development of the project below:
