Development of a Sustainable Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) for Search and Rescue Operations

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 AASTMT, Egypt.

2 Professor, AASTMT, Egypt.

3 Assistant Professor, AASTMT, Egypt.

10.21608/iugrc.2021.246530

Abstract

Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) are marine crafts that are capable of unmanned operations in sea and oceans. Such missions are sea patrol, reconnaissance, search and rescue and marine data collection. They vary in degrees of autonomy, ranging from remote controlled vehicles to ones that are fully autonomous and can operate with minimal human intervention. Unmanned vehicle systems technology has been greatly improved with advancement in computer capabilities and advanced control methods. In this paper, a new USV prototype for search and rescue missions is presented. Mechanical design, Electrical control systems and developed software of the USV are presented. This USV is designed to be a sustainable marine craft and to operate using renewable energy such as wind and solar energy. Such capability greatly prolongs the mission time and decrease the expected power consumption from conventional batteries. Also, it is compact in size and light in weight. This vehicle can be operated manually and autonomously with Live camera and LIDAR feedback system.

Keywords