Water environment monitoring with an autonomous unmanned surface vessel

Abstract

The paper discusses the use of catamaran-type ultra-small unmanned vessels for studying lakes, rivers and different offshore areas. The key features of a surface vessel designed in Irkutsk Technical University are presented. The article describes major systems of the vessel and concepts of autonomous functioning and remote control. The apparatus can fulfil automatically mapping, searching of sunken objects, hydroacoustic scanning of bottom relief and underwater video recording without the use of additional boats. It is capable to inspect 100 linear kilometers (∼15 km2) of the water area per one day. The use of solar panels and Li-ion batteries charged during a single sunny day allows it to work for several days without use of any external sources of energy for recharging. All systems have been checked and debugged in the laboratory and the designed vessel was tested in Irkutsk reservoir. The field testing showed that the error of coordinates determining was within 2 meters. The planned and actual routes almost coincided with an accuracy better than 3 meters.

Autonomous inland navigation: a literature review and extracontractual liability issues

“…Autonomous vessels are not only developed and deployed as a means of transport for goods. They are used for environmental and water monitoring (Moulton et al 2018;Berman et al 2020;Chensky et al 2021), to collect marine meteorological measurements (Chen et al 2019a), to monitor and collect data from wetlands (Odetti et al 2018), to make hydrological measurements (Da , to map the underwater bed and collect bathymetric data from inland and coastal environment (Sanfilippo et al 2021;Dohner et al 2022;Marchel et al 2020;Mohd Adam et al 2021) and to perform hydrographic surveys (Stateczny et al 2018).…”

Metal–air batteries for powering robots

“…In addition, solar cells, LIBs, and fuel cells all have certain requirements in the working environment and are easily damaged, which limit the application elds of USVs. [183][184][185] Underwater exploration primarily involves the development of submarines and biomimetic robots. Submarines have specic requirements for their power systems, including high energy density, long lifespan, fast charging, safety, and low noise.…”

“…In addition, solar cells, LIBs, and fuel cells all have certain requirements in the working environment and are easily damaged, which limit the application fields of USVs. 183–185…”

Application of Remote Sensing Technology in Ecological Engineering—A Case Study of Phase I Tao River Water Diversion Project

“…By studying the water environment monitoring based on 3D fluorescence technology, Ai Z M [3] obtained the monitoring error of this monitoring method was lower than that of traditional methods. Chensky D A [4][5] discussed about using two-body subminiature unmanned ships to study the environment of lake, river and different offshore areas. The error of coordinate determination was within 2 m. The planned route was almost overlapped with the actual route, with the precision exceeding 3 m. Wang L Y [6] also started applying the satellite remote sensing technology in urban ecological environment monitoring, analyzed the remote sensing monitoring of main urban water bodies in the field of environmental protection, expounded the principles and methods and satellite data extraction during the water body monitoring via the remote sensing technology, so as to reach the goal of real-time environment monitoring.…”