Trondheim University Acquires USS’ Unmanned Surface Vessel

Trondheim University has acquired an Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV), designed and built by Unmanned Survey Solutions (USS) in Hayle, Cornwall, for research studies in Norway, Swathe Services informed.

The Inception Class Mark II USV is designed for hydrographic surveys and data acquisition in ports and harbours, lakes and rivers, shallow coastal or enclosed inland areas.

James Williams, managing director of Swathe Services said: “We are proud to have been selected to provide the Department of Civil Engineering with a complete Multi-Beam Echo-Sounder (MBES) system along with the USS Inception Mark II USV.  The department at NTNU selected state of the art equipment including an R2SONIC 2020 MBES, SBG Ekinox2 Inertial Navigation System (INS), Valeport sound velocity sensors and Hypack software for data acquisition and post-processing.’’

Dr. Nils Rüther, associate professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Trondheim University, said: “We are delighted with the new Inception Class Mark II USV. It will be invaluable in our research on hydro-morphodynamic processes and river and lakes as well as water resources management.”

The Inception class USVs can be operated with remote control capabilities or as an autonomous vessel for ultimate line running and survey efficiency. As they are built out of aluminium they can operate in ultra-shallow waters, Swathe added.