Page 33: of Marine Technology Magazine (June 2019)

Photo: Leeway Marine apple with ultra-ef? cient eco USVs and stance and building from there. longer endurance, better coverage rates

AUVs, meanwhile, your 25 knot MBES From our perspective, all efforts to and higher resolution are all marginal will completely upset the apple cart. improve ef? ciency on the ocean are im- value propositions that matter. None of

The three speed fundamentals: portant. Eliminating people at sea, using those elements stand to unlock value • Speed is the most in? uential smaller, more ef? cient platforms with like introducing sensor speed.

variable that will impact the volume of monetizable product over a speci? ed pe- riod. • Speed reduces time and time drives all operating costs on the ocean. • Speed brings the offshore clos- er to home, offers surgical operations and signi? cantly reduces weather risk.

Once speed is well established, then the suite of operational ef? ciencies such as autonomy, power density, platform stability, data transfer rates, etc. will actually matter in a scalable way. It is conceivable that the ? nal solution could be approached from two opposing di- rections. The ? rst could see a solution derived from existing UxVs, scaling to larger, faster platforms. The second would see high-speed, medium-to-large vessels being designed with autono- mous technology as a fundamental op- erating system. In my mind, the ultimate solution is quite evident and based on the physics of the ocean. Added mass of water requires vehicle mass in order to counteract momentum; hence, I side with the concept of starting with sub- www.marinetechnologynews.com

Marine Technology Reporter 33

MTR #5 (18-33).indd 33 5/24/2019 3:02:08 PM