Long-Endurance Green Energy Autonomous Surface Vehicle Control Architecture

This paper presents the system design and architecture of a wave-powered Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV). The proposed solution complies with the self-powering nature of the vehicle, ensuring long-duration operations in the open ocean. In our field-tested concept, the vehicle is equipped with the instruments and capabilities to deal with the environmental uncertainties, while serving as an in-situ data provider for oceanographers and biologists. Robustness to mission failure and a high degree of redundancy are achieved by allocating computational efforts and responsibilities to independent subsystems. A three-layered system subdivision facilitates the implementation of several capabilities involving solar energy harvesting, storage and distribution, radio communication, autonomous navigation, AIS-based collision avoidance and onboard autonomy to supervise both the mission execution and the scientific payload employment.