Customer: ASV - Autonomous Surface Vehicles

Product: Orion Application: Naval target drones

Industry/vertical: Homeland Security

Based close to Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, ASV Ltd, part of international marine services group Global Fusion, provides rugged, reliable and effective unmanned systems using cutting-edge marine technology to customers in military, government and commercial organisations worldwide.

Issue:

ASV wanted to create a cost-effective naval target boat which could be lightweight and easily deployed for use in naval gunnery training and weapons testing. The boat would be fast and highly manoeuvrable, with a rugged hull that could survive weapon fire and be easy to repair.

The boat would incorporate ASV’s proven control architecture, enabling it to be operated individually or as part of a target swarm. The control architecture demanded a radio modem that was both small and rugged enough to be accommodated within a ballistic-protected electronics enclosure, but also cost-effective, given that the boat might easily be destroyed.

Solution:

ASV selected Wood & Douglas’ Orion radio data modem. The Orion’s compact, rugged diecast enclosure met the tight physical constraints which ASV had established, while providing the company with a flexible range of options for over-air protocol to ensure speed and data link integrity.

With selectable serial data and analogue input/output options, network addressing and frequency-programmable channels, the Orion provided ASV with a range of easy-to-use remote telemetry possibilities aboard the boat.

Depending on the RF module chosen, the Orion’s output of between 5mW to 2W was enough to provide connection over a long range while at sea, enabling safe operation and monitoring during live fire exercises.

Richard Daltry, Technical Manager at Autonomous Surface Vehicles Ltd, said, “When you are regularly firing on a boat your customer does not want it to be prohibitively expensive. Orion gave us all the connectivity we needed to support our control architecture, but importantly also proved to be a good value for money.”

ASV has deployed the Orion across a range of economical naval target drones and one-off configurations of unmanned surface vehicles. Rugged radio modem for marine deployment Cost-effective, even if destroyed Highly flexible for a range of applications in varied boats

Visit: www.asvglobal.com