Marine Systems · Direction B

Autonomy for surface and underwater vessels

We develop autonomous software, electronics and control systems, and supply equipment for uncrewed surface vessels (USV), surface and underwater drones.

Autonomous control of surface and underwater vessels

MR 01

MR 01 / ENGINEERING SCOPE

Autopilots, mission planning and supervision for USV, AUV and ROV platforms, from a single vessel to a mixed fleet.

USV
AUV
ROV
Fleet

No.	Service	What you receive	Typical lead time
01	USV autonomy stack	Autopilot, mission planner, operator console, integration on your hull	3 to 6 months
02	AUV and ROV control	Acoustic positioning, tether logic, pilot interface, dive logging	4 to 8 months
03	Collision avoidance	Radar and camera fusion, COLREG-aware manoeuvring, remote supervision	3 to 6 months
04	Launch and recovery	LARS design, supply and commissioning on the host ship	4 to 9 months

Scoping call with the engineer who would run the work, not a salesperson.

Autonomous software

MR 02

MR 02 / ENGINEERING SCOPE

Onboard and shore-side software that keeps working when the link drops and leaves a full record of every mission.

Autonomy
Mission planning
Fleet software
Simulation

No.	Service	What you receive	Typical lead time
01	Onboard autonomy software	State estimation, guidance, failsafe behaviour, update path	3 to 6 months
02	Operator console and fleet software	Mission library, per-vessel health, role based access, offline logs	2 to 5 months
03	Simulation and digital twin	Vessel model, sensor simulation, regression tests before sea trials	6 to 12 weeks
04	Data and reporting	Survey data pipelines, mission reports, export to your GIS	4 to 10 weeks

Source code handover and long-term support contracts available.

Electronics and control systems

MR 03

MR 03 / ENGINEERING SCOPE

Boards, firmware and control units built to survive salt water, vibration and a customer schedule.

PCB design
Firmware
Sensor integration
Power

No.	Service	What you receive	Typical lead time
01	PCB design and production	Schematic, layout, assembly, bring up and test jig	6 to 14 weeks
02	Firmware development	Bare metal or RTOS firmware, bootloader, update path, source handover	4 to 12 weeks
03	Payload and sensor integration	Sonar, radar, camera and GNSS brought into one data stream	3 to 10 weeks
04	Power and propulsion control	Motor controllers, battery management, power distribution units	6 to 16 weeks

Boards are made on our own line, so a respin takes days.

Equipment supply for USV and drones

MR 04

MR 04 / ENGINEERING SCOPE

Proven equipment for uncrewed surface and underwater platforms, sourced, tested and delivered with documentation.

Sensors
Communication
Propulsion
Platforms

No.	Service	What you receive	Typical lead time
01	Navigation sensors	GNSS/INS, compasses, DVL, acoustic positioning	2 to 10 weeks
02	Payload sensors	Multibeam and side-scan sonar, radar, EO/IR cameras	3 to 12 weeks
03	Communication	Radio and mesh links, satellite terminals, acoustic modems	2 to 8 weeks
04	Propulsion and platforms	Thrusters, drives, hulls and ready platforms for integration	4 to 16 weeks

Also available as a review of a plan you already have.

MR 05 · Delivered projects

Finished work, with the awkward parts left in

Each case follows the same four headings: the task, the engineering solution, what went wrong, and the result. Client names appear where the contract allows it.

Surface

2020 to 2021

Autonomy stack for a coastal survey USV

The task

A survey operator wanted a 6 m boat to run bathymetry lines without a helmsman, keeping line spacing inside half a metre in a one metre swell.

Engineering solution

We wrote the autopilot, a line planner that accounts for drift, and an operator console that shows one screen per mission phase. Sonar, GNSS and heading feed one state estimator on a small marine computer.

Challenges faced

Two problems held us up. Heading data dropped out near steel harbour walls, and the first line planner fought the current instead of leaning into it. We added a compass fallback and rewrote the planner around measured drift.

The result

Line keeping inside 0.4 m at 4 knots. Survey days per project dropped by about a third because the boat runs while the crew processes data.

C++
ROS 2
NMEA 2000
Qt console

Line keeping inside 0.4 m at 4 knots. Survey days per project dropped by about a third because the boat runs while the crew processes data.

Underwater

2022

ROV pilot station and tether management

The task

An inspection contractor needed a pilot station usable at night on a moving deck, with tether length and tension visible at all times.

Engineering solution

A two screen station: video with overlay on one, vehicle and tether state on the other. Tether drum encoders and a load cell feed a warning model that speaks before the tether gets tight.

Challenges faced

Pilots rejected the first interface. It had the data an engineer wants, not what a pilot needs. We rebuilt it after two shifts on board with them.

The result

Handover time between pilots fell to minutes, and the contractor reported no tether incidents across the first season.

Electron
GStreamer
CAN
Load cell DAQ

Handover time between pilots fell to minutes, and the contractor reported no tether incidents across the first season.

Surface

2025 to now

Fleet operations software for multi vessel work

The task

An operator running five drones with three crews needed one place to plan, watch and record every mission.

Engineering solution

A fleet view with per vessel health, shared mission library, role based access, and an offline log that reconciles when a vessel comes back into coverage. Deployed on their own servers.

Challenges faced

Reconciling logs recorded during a link outage produced duplicate events at first. We moved to per vessel event sequencing with server side merge, and wrote a replay tool to prove the result.

The result

Five vessels planned by one shift lead. Mission reports that took a day of manual assembly now export in minutes.

Go
PostgreSQL
TypeScript
MQTT

Five vessels planned by one shift lead. Mission reports that took a day of manual assembly now export in minutes.

Electronics

2024

Sonar payload gateway, board and firmware

The task

A sonar maker needed one small board to convert three legacy sensor interfaces into a single Ethernet stream for uncrewed platforms.

Engineering solution

A four layer board around an STM32H7 with isolated RS-485, a synchronised sampling clock, and firmware that timestamps every packet against PPS.

Challenges faced

The first revision passed on the bench and failed in the hull. The DC-DC stage radiated into the sonar band. Revision B moved the converter, added a shield can and a filter, then passed.

The result

Timestamp error under 50 microseconds and a single cable into the vehicle. The board is now standard on their two newest products.

STM32H7
Zephyr
Altium
EN 61000 tests

Timestamp error under 50 microseconds and a single cable into the vehicle. The board is now standard on their two newest products.

Electronics

2024

EMC qualification of a shipboard autonomy computer

The task

A vessel integrator had an autonomy computer that failed a pre compliance scan three weeks before delivery.

Engineering solution

We ran a diagnostic scan, found two emission sources, redesigned the cable entry and grounding, then took the article through the full EN 61000 and MIL-STD-461 sequence with a report per test.

Challenges faced

One conducted emissions peak came from the customer supplied power module, which we could not change. We added an input filter stage and documented the dependency rather than hiding it.

The result

Passed at the second attempt, eleven days before the ship date. The report went to the class society without further questions.

EN 61000
MIL-STD-461
Filter design
Test report

Passed at the second attempt, eleven days before the ship date. The report went to the class society without further questions.