ASV BEN

ASV BEN with Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse

In its effort to explore new and more efficient ways of collecting hydrographic data the Center has acquired a C-Worker 4 (named “Benthic Explorer and Navigator – BEN in honor of Capt. Ben Smith) autonomous surface vehicle from ASV Global Ltd. The C-Worker 4 is the result of a design collaboration with ASV Global with the goal of creating a platform whose sea keeping, endurance, and payload capacity are suitable for production survey operations and whose interfaces are adaptable for academic research. The vessel is approximately 4 m in length, is powered by a diesel jet drive, has a 16-hour design endurance, a 1kW electrical payload, and is outfitted with central sea-chest with retractable sonar mount.

An Applanix POS/MV GNSS aided IMU system has been installed to provide precise positioning and attitude, and a Kongsberg EM2040P multibeam echo-sounder, graciously provided by Kongsberg through the Center’s industrial partnership program, has been installed for seafloor survey. Beyond the factory sensors listed below, numerous other sensors, hardware, and software systems have been integrated into BEN.

For additional information about BEN, please contact Val Schmidt.

ASV BEN on trailer
ASV BEN ready for transport. BEN is small enough to be towed on a trailer.
Val and friend on deck of RVGS with ASV Controls
Val Schmidt uses handheld controls to drive the ASV BEN from the deck of the RVGS.
BEN rocks in the deep tank.
ASV BEN is rocked in the UNH engineering tank to test its instrumentation.
ASV BEN suspended from cables
ASV BEN being deployed from the deck of a research vessel.
ASV BEN open hood
A peek inside ASV BEN.
ASV BEN with E/V Nautilus
ASV BEN deployed during a multi-vehicle expedition with the E/V Nautilus.

ASV BEN Specifications
 

Physical

  • Length overall: 3.95 m (13’)
  • Beam overall: 1.58 m (5’2”)
  • Draft: 0.4 m approx. (1’4”)
  • Full load displacement: 1,900 lbs (approx.)
  • Central payload sea chest: 80 cm x 55 cm x 34 cm
  • Hull material: 5083 marine grade aluminum with fiberglass composite hatch/superstructure
  • Hull color: Signal Yellow

Payload and Sensors 

  • Navigation lights
  • AIS Transceiver dAISy2 2-channel.
  • Lowrance Marine-band radar
  • Axis forward-looking color camera
  • Six color camera array with 360-degree coverage
  • Stern observation camera looking down from mast at thruster and transom area
  • FLIR (TAU2) forward-looking infrared camera
  • FLIR (AX-8) Engine Room observation camera
  • Removable UW GoPro Hero series cameras mounted to sonar plate
  • Velodyne VLP-16 Hi-Res PUCK Lidar
  • Speed through water and water temperature sensor
  • Electrically actuated sonar pole mount into center seachest
  • Windows and Linux computers for payload and back-seat driver support
  • 24V 1kW electrical payload with current monitoring and remote switching

Telemetry

  • Starlink Maritime with Mobile Priority 1TB account
  • Kongsberg Marine Broadband Radio (MBR-179 and MBR-144): Functional Range: 12-16 km at 8 Mbps, fixed.
  • Ubiquiti Bullet M2 802.11 b/g WiFi (2.4GHz) (11 Mbps/56Mbps) Functional Range: 300 m
  • Iridium 9522B for Short-Burst Data. Basic telemetry updates can be provided through this system at 10-20 m intervals
  • VHF short range voice comms and AIS transceiver

Propulsion

  • 30 hp Yanmar 3YM30 diesel engine
  • Almarin water jet drive system with centrifugal clutch
  • Hydraulic steering system
  • Fuel capacity: 100 liters
  • Endurance: 16 hours at 5.5 knots
  • Top speed: 5.5 knots (speed through water)

Electrical

  • 1.5kW 24V Alternator
  • 120 Ah 24V DC Hotel Battery Bank
  • 12V Starter battery
  • Filtered electrical payload capacity: 1kW