What Is an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV)?

An unmanned surface vehicle (USV) is any boat or ship that works on the surface of the water with nobody on board. Some are driven like a remote-control boat by an operator watching live video. Others follow a mission plan, avoid obstacles and make routine decisions themselves, with people supervising from shore or from a nearby ship.

The names vary. Navies and industry use unmanned or uncrewed surface vehicle or vessel, and the UK increasingly prefers uncrewed. Autonomous surface vessel (ASV), drone boat and sea drone are also common, and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) uses Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) for larger ships with reduced or no crew. Sizes run from survey craft under 2 m long that fit in a van to ships of around 40 m, such as the US Navy’s Sea Hunter.

Removing the crew does not remove their jobs. Every task a skipper and lookout would do has to be handled by hardware and software, which is why a USV is built around five systems.

Most USVs can do both, and switch between modes during a mission. In remote control, an operator steers using live video and sensor data. In supervised autonomy, the vessel follows its plan and avoids obstacles while a person monitors and approves key decisions. In full autonomy, it carries out the mission within set limits and calls for help only when something falls outside them.

The IMO describes four degrees of autonomy for MASS, from ships with automated decision support and crew on board, through remotely controlled ships with and without crew, to fully autonomous ships. The IMO has been developing a goal-based MASS Code to regulate them. Whatever the mode, a USV at sea is still expected to follow the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs), which is why collision avoidance is a core part of the autonomy software.

USVs are often confused with underwater vehicles and with aerial drones. The differences come from where each one works and how it stays in contact.

The types increasingly work together. A USV can launch and recover an AUV, act as a communications gateway between underwater vehicles and shore, or carry a small drone to extend what it can see.

USVs take on work that is dull, dirty or dangerous for crewed boats, or that needs to run for weeks at a time.

Operating safely in busy waters relies on reliable collision avoidance, redundant communications, geofencing and a clear plan for when the link drops, such as stopping or returning to a safe point. National regulators set the local rules. In UK waters, smaller remotely operated vessels are covered by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s Workboat Code. Some USVs launch from shore and work alone, while others are deployed from a crewed mother ship that provides launch, recovery, power and supervision. Power ranges from batteries for quiet inshore work to hybrid and diesel systems for long offshore missions.

The navigation and perception computer has to survive salt spray, condensation, wide temperature swings, constant vibration and wave slam, and run from a 12 or 24 V DC supply. On many projects it must also meet marine standards such as IEC 60945, which our guide to maritime computing standards explains. Marine computers cover the bridge and control-room roles, while sealed IP67 computers can be mounted in exposed spaces.

For perception, rugged Jetson computers run object detection on several camera feeds at low power, with Ethernet for radar and lidar and CAN for the engine and steering. Our maritime surveillance case study shows how sealed GPU computers handle that kind of video analytics at sea.

We supply marine, sealed and edge AI computers for USV navigation and perception built, imaged and tested as standard. Send us your sensors, power supply and mounting position, and we will specify the system to match.