Objective
Battery-powered AUVs have been used to study the seabed without the requirement of a human operator. Their operational endurance is limited by the available battery charge. Gliders, an AUV subclass, use small changes in their buoyancy to move like a profiling float. By using their wings, gliders can convert the vertical motion to horizontal, propelling themselves forward with very low power consumption. Hence, mission duration can be extended to months and to thousands of kilometers. However, gliders are suited for a particular set of missions involving relatively basic measurements and seabed mapping cannot be performed due to their inherent inability to cruise in a straight line. A surface support vessel is standard practice for launch and recovery of AUVs. The requirement to have a support vessel adds to the overall mission cost. Therefore higher endurance is needed in AUV platforms in order to bring mission costs down and improve the ocean exploration capability. The ENDURUNS project will deliver a step-change in AUV technology by implementing a novel hybrid design power by hydrogen fuel cell. An Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) will support the operation of the AUV, providing geotagging and data transmission capability to and from the Control Centre on shore.
Call for proposal
H2020-MG-2018-SingleStage-INEA
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
73134 Chania
Greece
Participants (15)
16152 Genova
13009 Marseille
3083 Limassol
1932 Zaventem
16129 Genova
01116 Vilnius
92251 Klaipeda
10135 Torino
141 22 Athens
1065 Nicosia
B15 2TT Birmingham
13071 Ciudad Real
15341 Agia Paraskevi
00185 Roma
5600 Faaborg
