Design and Implementation of Control System for Green Unmanned Surface Vehicle
Abstract
The development, implementation, and testing of a control and monitoring system for awave and solar-powered Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) are presented. In the future,the USV will be used for numerous science experiments and can be deployed for monthlongunmanned operations in the ocean. A systems engineering approach focusing onstepwise development and testing was used to ensure high reliability. System safetyand robustness was the primary focus during development. This was sought achievedby monitoring of internal system states and by implementing a fallback design. Apolling loop with a switch case implemented state machine was programmed on arobust embedded computer to control the system. Several peripheral devices wereinterfaced to the main computer using different protocols. The USV was tested in theTrondheim Fjord, and the design behaved as intended. Some tuning remains to bedone on fallback autopilot and the leak detection system, but early results indicatethat the design and implementation are well suited for applications in USV systemswhere electric energy is limited, and a high level of robustness is required.