Aluminum hull USV for coastal water and seafloor monitoring

This paper discusses the requirements, design, construction and development of the ALuminum Autonomous Navigator for Intelligent Sampling (ALANIS), an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) developed by the Autonomous robotic systems and control group of CNR-ISSIA Genova basically for coastal monitoring. The onboard automation system of the rubber boat shaped aluminum vessel manages the steering and throttle of a conventional outboard motor on the base of user desires and measurements supplied by the navigation package. An automatically controlled winch is devoted to deployment and recovery of scientific instrumentation through a suitable hole in the vehicle prow. Experimental results, demonstrating basic guidance and control capabilities, are reported and discussed.