Developing Solar Powered Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USVs) for Ocean Data Collection

As marine technology develops, more uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) have been used for real applications and they have the potential to overcome significant challenges associated with the collection of ocean data including cost, difficult environments and adequate spatial/temporal coverage. Energy harvesting USVs, which are powered exclusively by capturing energy from the environment including wind, waves, and solar, have several advantages that make them well suited for certain applications, including the ability to voyage non-stop for months, no greenhouse gas emissions and low noise operations. Open Ocean Robotics is developing solar-powered USVs that have the potential to collect data continuously for months at a time, voyage in sea states of 7 and more, and power a significant sensor payload. Some of the initial applications the USV will focus on include marine mammal monitoring, current profiling and basic metocean data collection.