Page 26: of Marine Technology Magazine (March 2026)

USVs HYPOXIA

A BREATH OF

FRESH AIR:

USVs MAP USVs MAP

HYPOXIA IN HYPOXIA IN

THE GULFTHE GULF

All photos courtesy of USM/SeaTrac Systems

By Celia Konowe he scienti? c method serves as a standard for re- of the project, building on an earlier phase and moving beyond search, guiding analytical and investigative proj- proof-of-concept to deploy multiple SP-48 uncrewed surface ects. Though taught to generations of students, its vehicles (USVs). “It’s a very labor-intensive, crude operation steps are far from ancient, as technological ad- with a large research vessel,” said James Thompson at USM.

T vancements help researchers to develop and mod- “We approached that from an uncrewed vehicle standpoint; ernize each of its steps, saving time, money and even lives. we can modernize that with the tools that are available now.”

Data collection, the middle step of the scienti? c method, is no The Pickup Truck of USVs exception. Many projects require robust datasets, often col- The star of this research is the SP-48 USV, which stands for lected from extreme environments or over lengthy periods of “solar powered” and “4.8 meters.” At roughly 15 feet long and time. The University of Southern Mississippi (USM), with the about 650 pounds, it can run 24/7 for months at a time thanks help of SeaTrac Systems, has turned to autonomous solutions to a large array of solar panels on the deck that charge an in- while conducting hypoxia research in the Gulf of Mexico. ternal battery. It is designed to run both near- and off-shore;

The partnership, which includes the National Oceanic and within the scope of this project, the USV could be as near as

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), maps potential hy- ? ve miles or as far as 40 miles. “The boat itself is really a plat- poxia in the Gulf and how it impacts local ? sheries and ? sh form for data collection,” said Hobie Boeschenstein, director populations. Hypoxic zones, also known as dead zones, are of operations and business development at SeaTrac. “We think areas of water in which oxygen levels are decreased due to of it as a pickup truck, where the platform itself isn’t all that nutrient pollution, often signi? cantly impacting aquatic life. useful for anyone. It’s really all about the payloads you can

The collaboration recently completed a successful phase two put on it and being able to quickly swap those out and put on different items—either sonar units or water quality sensors or oceanographic sensors.”

Across the phases of the project, SeaTrac and USM saw

The SeaTrac SP-48 USV changes to the USV to make it more versatile and robust in its data collection abilities. “Speci? cally for this one,” Boeschen- stein added, “the big development effort on our side was the winch and being able to support pro? ling down to the sea? oor.

Throughout the course of the project, layering on additional communications like the Starlink Mini was a big addition from when we ? rst started.” “It’s so versatile as far as what we can put on it. We tested cameras, we tested some collision avoidance tech—a lot of different things while we ran this hypoxia mission. That just 26 March/April 2026

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