Autonomous vessel supplier, ASV Global, has delivered a 3-meter autonomous catamaran to the University of Southampton.
This vessel is the first of the brand-new class of C-Cat vessels to roll off the production line.
The vessel will be used by the university for scientific research and development of autonomous behaviours. The investment was funded by an EPSRC RAS Capital Award.
Dr Jon Downes from the University of Southampton’s Maritime Robotics Laboratory said, “We are very excited to have our own autonomous vessel which will enable us to undertake autonomy research and development. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with ASV – they worked closely with us to ensure the vessel fitted our requirements and have delivered a robust and reliable platform ideal for autonomy research and experimentation with payloads.”
The C-Cat 3 has been developed to complement the existing ocean going ASV Global vehicles for survey and support tasks where a smaller vehicle is better suited to missions.