The P5 has a monohull with a flat bottom. The larger hull volume results in:

• More buoyancy for accommodating extra systems and weight and providing more internal space.
• More powerful batteries and motors, and supply more power to the survey equipment.
• The highest stability at survey speeds
• Makes it easier to integrate the propulsion and control systems and survey sensors

While aluminium has inherently excellent resistance to corrosion without the need for a coating, all the hull fittings were chosen to minimise the potential for galvanic corrosion, and the vessel is fitted with sacrificial anodes and a galvanic isolator to increase overall protection.

The vessel is equipped with full survey instrumentation and FLIR thermal infrared, Velodyne LiDAR and low light surveillance cameras. The USV can be equipped with virtually any multibeam echosounder, for example a Teledyne SeaBatT20 dual head MBES with sidescan sonar function and a Velodyne LiDAR

Our P5 is powered by lithium-ion batteries and the propulsion system has two ducted propellers driven by electric motors with a combined power of 8 or 20kW, depending on the model. Up to 2kW, at several DC and AC voltages, is available for payloads. Solar panels on deck recharge the batteries during deployment.

Customers are concerned about their environmental impact. A Phoenix has a fully electric propulsion system and operates with zero emissions at the point of use when running on batteries. That avoids the CO2 emissions of a larger, crewed survey vessel with diesel engines. In the future, we would also like to replace the diesel generator on our HP model with a hydrogen fuel cell.

Information about the environment of the USV is derived from:

• Radar
• Lidar
• Forward looking sonar
• video cameras
• AIS receiver

Positioning relies on GNSS-RTK, providing an accuracy of approximately two centimetres, and an inertial measurement unit.

The communications links to the operator station include Marine Broadband Radio, 4G and WiFi, all securely encrypted. The remote operator, onshore or on a nearby vessel, has displays for hydrographic data and for vessel status and control. Aquatic Drones also provide a cloud solution to give personnel at the operator’s base immediate access to the data gathered, anywhere in the world.

Redundancy of essential control, propulsion and steering systems ensures safety in the case of component failure. Sensor data are processed and overlapping signals are cross-checked for highest secured situational awareness. The remote operator can always monitor the health of the systems, intervene and even control the vessel manually. If the communications links are interrupted, the Phoenix will loiter at its current position or return to a predefined home point.