Plans have been revealed for a fully autonomous uncrewed surface vessel (USV) fleet for long-term lease or charter.
The owners behind the company, Zero USV, a collaboration between the founders of Marine AI and MSubs, aim to have the first vessels fully tested and available by September 2024.
With a twin-electric drive for optimum redundancy, and a hybrid powertrain for resilience and efficiency, coupled with Marine AI’s GuardianAI autonomy software stack, Oceanus12 is a 12 meter, fully autonomous ‘turnkey’ package ready to sail.
The company’s founder, Matthew Ratsey, says it is designed from the ground up specifically for over the horizon autonomous operations and will allow increased efficiency whilst offering payload flexibility, and reducing risk and human error, especially in harsh or hard to reach environments.
Utilizing a suite of marine sensors, including the internationally reputed W-band Navtech Radar, which forms a key part of a combination of sensor data streams feeding into Marine AI’s GuardianAI autonomy software for real time processing and analysis, and ultimately COLREG compliant vessel control and navigation.
Oceanus12 has been specifically designed as a versatile platform, with a very wide range of potential applications from surveys and monitoring of critical assets to safety. These include, for instance, geophysical surveying and mapping, offshore oil & gas exploration, renewables exploration and maintenance, through to border control, fisheries science, and defense.
The build of the USVs is to be completed by Dorset-based Manor Marine, an OEG Group company, prior to electronics, sensors, and software installation.
Matthew Ratsey, Managing Director of Zero USV, said; “We believe that we are in a unique position, with our company backgrounds and experience, to bring together the technologies required to offer clients an “off the shelf” autonomous vessel, whilst also being able to offer customisation where necessary for specific jobs or clients. There has long been a requirement for proper “over the horizon” capable USVs to fulfill a whole host of roles, but pulling the relevant technologies together has been extremely difficult for vessel operators. Zero USV solves that.”
He added; “We now have the world’s first solution to the problem, by not only offering a state of the art 12m over the horizon USV as a charter vessel, but also with the full backup and maintenance support to ensure 24/7 operations with minimal downtime. With safety and economy uppermost, the vessel will be available for charter or long term lease for myriad offshore tasks which would otherwise require human presence, with the associated risks, and on water crew costs. Oceanus12 promises to deliver client users with significantly greater flexibility, efficiencies, and no crew costs. We’re very excited to be working with such respected marine specialist companies such as Manor Marine and Navtech Radar to deliver a world first deep ocean USV charter solution for marine autonomy.”
Two Oceanus12 class vessels are currently in production, with a further eight planned for 2025. Charter will be available in the UK, North America, Canada and Australia as Zero USV rolls out its USVs with global partners.
