An autonomous uncrewed surface vessel fleet will soon be available for long term lease or charter, says Zero USV. This is a a collaboration between software house Marine AI and Plymouth’s MSubs and the venture aims to have its first vessels fully tested and available by September 2024.

Two Oceanus12 class vessels are currently in production, with a further eight planned for 2025. Charter will be available in the UK, North America, Canada and Australia.

The collaboration has form. The two companies worked on the first full-size unmanned research vessel to conduct scientific experiments whilst autonomously navigating across the Atlantic Ocean. They’ve fed the experience and knowledge from the voyage of the Mayflower 400 into this new vision.

Now they’re presenting Oceanus12 as a fully autonomous turnkey package ready to sail. At 12 metres, it comes with a twin-electric drive for optimum redundancy, and a hybrid powertrain. It’s coupled with Marine AI’s GuardianAI autonomy software stack.

Matthew Ratsey (the company’s founder) says Oceanus12 is designed from the ground up specifically for over the horizon autonomous operations. It’ll allow increased efficiency and payload flexibility, plus reduce risk and human error, especially in harsh environments.

“We believe that we are in a unique position, with our company backgrounds and experience, to bring together the technologies required to offer clients an ‘off the shelf’ autonomous vessel, whilst also being able to offer customisation where necessary for specific jobs or clients,” he says. “There has long been a requirement for proper ‘over the horizon’ capable USVs to fulfil a whole host of roles, but pulling the relevant technologies together has been extremely difficult for vessel operators. Zero USV solves that.

“We now have the world’s first solution to the problem, by not only offering a state of the art 12m over the horizon USV as a charter vessel, but also with the full back up and maintenance support to ensure 24/7 operations with minimal downtime. With safety and economy uppermost, the vessel will be available for charter or long term lease for myriad offshore tasks which would otherwise require human presence, with the associated risks, and on water crew costs. Oceanus12 promises to deliver client users with significantly greater flexibility, efficiencies, and no crew costs.”

Zero USV sees the Oceanus12 in a wide range of potential applications. It cites geophysical surveying and mapping, offshore oil & gas exploration, renewables exploration and maintenance, through to border control, fisheries science, and defence as examples.

The build of the USVs is to be completed by Dorset-based Manor Marine, an OEG Group company, prior to electronics, sensors, and software installation. Manor Marine has an established reputation in aluminium vessel construction spanning more than 30 years.

In summer 2022, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS400) successfully completed its voyage from England across the Atlantic, landing near Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts. It was a self-operating 15 metre trimaran, which navigated using artificial intelligence and generated energy using solar power. It was developed by marine research organisation ProMare with IBM acting as lead technology and scientific partner for the project.

In November 2020, MIN reported that one of the Pentagon’s two Overlord large unmanned surface vessels conducted its first-ever Panama Canal transit in a major test of autonomous systems with few reliability issues along the way.

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