Deep-Sea H2-Powered AUVs Provide Underwater Clarity

Cellula Robotics’ Solus-LR Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) offers game-changing features and capabilities for deep-sea research and exploration. Each individual component is important in its own right but when considered as a fully integrated system, the sum of this innovation-packed marine exploration platform is truly greater than its parts.

Consider range and endurance; the Solus-LR base range is 2,000 km. Power comes from a hydrogen and oxygen fuel cell with a Li-ion battery, a combination that enables hybrid operation. This high energy density power pack allows the Solus-LR system to undertake multi-month, submerged port-to-port missions. In contrast, most battery operated AUVs are limited to one to two days underwater.

If 2,000 km isn’t extensive enough, Cellula’s extra-large Uncrewed Underwater Vessel (UUV), Solus-XR, is set to start sea trials in winter 2023 and promises a range of up to 5,000 km.

There are a number of highly engineered details that make the Solus-LR truly cutting-edge, and several of these technological advances are in direct response to some of the demands from ocean-based businesses and stakeholders, from scientific research agencies to offshore energy developers.

POWERING EFFICIENCY

It is the incorporation of an H2 fuel cell that makes Solus AUVs so unique, and this is the component that ultimately delivers their unparalleled range. Solus systems can be launched from any location and transit to a predetermined target or area for monitoring or study and carry out operations for up to 45 days before returning to the launch point. To increase reliability, critical Solus-XR systems are redundant. In short, if anything does go wrong, the AUV will successfully navigate its way home unscathed.

Autonomy, when deploying the Solus-LR, takes on another, larger meaning and conveys additional benefits. Consider the in-field resources required to support traditional AUV campaigns, during which standard, battery powered AUVs are partnered by a topside support vessel for tracking and monitoring. Not only is this expensive—a large vessel with a 100-person crew can cost upwards of $100,000/day—but there is an environmental cost also, due to the campaigns carbon footprint. In contrast, Solus-LR enables operators to work independent of a surface vessel, resulting in a 10X or better cost reduction benefit for offshore clients.

There are, however, some exceptions, especially is the exploration mission has a heavy data processing requirement or physical sampling tasks. But even then, Solus-LR can still be paired with a much smaller vessel and operated by a far leaner team—a 3 – 4-person crew at most—and so operational efficiencies are all but guaranteed. There is an important distinction here, though: the crew on the smaller vessel is there for project work, not to pilot the AUV. Solus-LR is independent. But works with the team.

STRETCHING AUTONOMY

The 2,000 km range (not to mention 5,000 km with Solus-XR) significantly extends our horizons for ocean exploration and the capture of quality marine data, especially in remote, deep, and often hazardous waters. And demand for deep-ocean autonomy, a new realm in which subsea drones continue to stretch our remote survey capabilities, is on the rise.

The discipline of ocean exploration is ready for someone to disrupt the status quo, to turn the industry on its head, and a fleet of deep ocean port-to-port AUVs—Solus AUVs—that can progress, modernize, and streamline the way offshore developers work at sea could be the technical instrument to trigger a true paradigm shift. The advent of Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USVs) only furthers the potential for realizing new efficiency gains—Solus-LR can work with any type of USV.

INCREASED FLEXIBILITY

While the Solus-LR offers a range of benefits across a spectrum of ocean-based applications, from offshore infrastructure development to scientific exploration to defense-related exercises, increased flexibility underlines them all.

When it comes to payload and other support equipment, Solus-LR is completely modular and component agnostic. In some sense, it is easier to consider the Solus-LR as an autonomous platform; the AUV can incorporate any sensor for any mission to detect different things. This was key to the development of our AUV offering—to offer customers maximum flexibility, especially as an AUV’s mission evolves and equipment changes are required.

The “energy bank” that powers the Solus-LR (and Solus-XR) brings a new dimension to endurance. Not only is the AUV capable of extended missions, but the onboard energy source can also be used to power and recharge other battery-powered assets and equipment, such as an auxiliary ROV or a second AUV. And this speaks to the role that the high capacity AUVs like the Solus-LR could play in establishing and supporting a new era of swarm operations.

While the Solus-LR delivers industry leading coverage, it stands to reason that the more AUVs you have working in unison, the more ground you can cover, and in less time. For larger ocean surveys, the opportunity to scale up operations by deploying multiple units will inevitably lead to in situ efficiencies and cost savings, but it really depends on the scope and range of the survey project.

BETTER DATA QUICKER

Ensuring quality data with ever shorter lead times has much to do with the Solus-LR’s ability to work efficiently and safely in high seas and unpredictable conditions. As can often be the case with projects related to the build out of offshore infrastructure. Take the current offshore wind projects underway in the US, in Atlantic waters off the east coast, where robust and reliable data is key to site surveys and the wind farm planning at relatively shallow depths.

Nullifying the potential impacts of poor weather is one of the keys to minimalizing a customer’s lead time to quality data when deploying the Solus-LR. In high seas, naturally, surface vessels will tend to get knocked around, the result of which is invariably bad bottom data. AUVs eliminate the possibility of weather delays and the unforeseen expense they incur. They remove the “human cost” of working at-sea, which includes a range of HSSE considerations, and just gets the task done.

The next chapter for ocean exploration is underpinned by our capacity—as an industry—to integrate automation and capitalize on the promise of remote operations. Whether in the pursuit of operational efficiency, curbing our sector’s carbon footprint, or heralding a new era of health and safety practices, AUVs represent a win-win solution for ocean stakeholders. Solus AUVs and their hydrogen fuel cells are ready for this dawning reality.

For more information, visit: www.cellula.com.

To read the full article, which was featured in ON&T Jan/Feb 2023, click here.