Drone Tug - An efficient diesel/electric autonomous tug.
Designed for offshore aquaculture, barge transport and any application where low-cost tug operations are required.
The Autonomous Tug Boat was developed by C.A.Goudey and Associates in collaboration with Maribotics, LLC for unmanned near shore and offshore aquaculture applications.
Maribotics designed, built, tested and fielded all of the vessel’s electrical and electronic systems. This included all of the core vessel operation and control components including diesel engine control, bilge, ballast, lighting and safety circuitry and more.
Maribotics designed, fabricated and fielded the autonomous controls for navigation and remote piloting. This included all of the interface electronics for the three-phase AC motor controls, radio control system, onboard autonomy, remote piloting and data telemetry.
The full system was tested in Boston Harbor where the vessel successfully navigated several miles of operation underway via remote pilot control and fully unmanned waypoint and track line following, while towing a 10+ meter seawater filled bladder as a proxy for a fully laden aquaculture barge.
Drone Tug
Some short video clips of the Drone Tug executing sea trial runs in autonomous and remote operation modes. Note that with the highly skewed propellers, the tug is capable of turning 360 degrees within its own length. Also, the tug was tested towing a support vessel stern-to, with a drone anchor and with a 20 meter long water filled tow bladder.
Drone Tug demonstrating a 360 degree spin within one boat length.
An icy cold day under the Rte 1 bridge in Boston Harbor executing some early autonomous track following missions.