AutoNaut heads out into the Atlantic. Photo courtesy MOST Ltd.

by Scott Kesselman



The MOST (Autonomous Vessels) Ltd. AutoNaut unmanned surface vessel returned from a 13-day-long scientific mission for the National Oceanographic Centre, where it weathered an Atlantic storm with sustained gales of up to 70 mph.



“This was a major test for AutoNaut,” says David Maclean of MOST. “To have delivered on time, on budget, and to a very tight schedule and for our unmanned surface vessel to have gone straight out into the Atlantic and followed her program through a gale and a storm is a really solid achievement.”



AutoNaut is a long-endurance USV using only wave-sourced propulsion and solar energy to power electronics and is designed for autonomous data gathering for science, military and offshore gas, oil and renewables.



On the mission, AutoNaut towed a 25-meter hydrophone array designed to listen for cetacean sounds and noise from ships. It also carried an AirMar weather station, a pyronometer to measure sunlight, two cameras for wildlife, and a WetLabs Triplet Pack to measure chlorophyll and other aspects of sea quality, according to a company press release.



“We are delighted that the AutoNaut has successfully completed its first major offshore mission and that the scientific sensors including the towed array have been safely recovered,” says Russell Wynn, senior scientist at NOC. “It is encouraging to see that the novel camera system has already captured high-quality images of seabirds in the offshore environment, and we are excited about analyzing the data in the coming weeks.”