Development of an Autonomous Surface Vessel for Use as a Drone Base Station

The increasing presence of coastal debris is problematic in many parts of the world. Coastal cleanups are very time-consuming and expensive. Part of this cost involves the monitoring of debris washed ashore. An effective way to enable careful analysis of the amounts of types of debris is the use of drone-based photography. However, many coastlines are not easily accessible. Therefore, to monitor extensive coastlines for coastal debris, an autonomous surface vessel (ASV) is being developed for use as a drone base station. The concept is for the user to remotely guide the ASV out of any given harbor, and once in the open sea, the vessel proceeds autonomously on preprogrammed GPS routes to specified locations. At the specified locations, when the conditions for drone operation are appropriate, the drone is released and takes photographs of coastal areas before returning to the ASV for recharging. This technology is expected to have wide potential for both open sea and coastal monitoring and potential application in assisting search and rescue operations.