DEVELOPING AN UNMANNED SURFACE VEHICLE for HARBOR SURVEY and SECURITY APPLICATIONS

Nowadays, the protection and security of civilian harbors, ports and even offshore platforms has received an increasing interest for the related authorities. One of theapplicable methods in this area that currently attracts many scientific researchers is the use of Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), either in a single or in a group manner.These vehicles could be employed for patrolling purposes, searching of waterways and harbors for suspicious packages or anomalies that might be attached to vessels ordropped to sea bottom, or investigating in hazardous/dangerous situations, which are all of importance as harbor and offshore security becomes increasingly more important. For example, the NATO s Defense against Terrorism (DAT) program [1] has indicated the issue of harbor security as one of the main ten areas of work, where advanced technologies (like efficient sensor networks, electro-optical detectors and unmanned vehicles) can reveal very helpful. An example is given in the development of a family of USVs at the MIT AUV Lab (Manley et al., 2000) since the early 1990’s [2]. Owl as one of the first USVs with 3 m length designed by Office of Naval Research (ONR) for specialapplications such as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and antisubmarine missions [3]. Taiwan Ocean Research Institute (TORI) in cooperatedwith United Ship Design and Development Center developed a USV named ZhengeHe 101 with integrated surveying equipment for inshore waters surveying toreduce the intervention of human in data acquisition [4]. This paper reviews a preliminary design of a small and light unmanned surface vessel for domestic harbor surveyand security applications, with emphasizing on the USV system description and controller design.