USV Swarm
One major area we focus our research and development on is a migratory waterfowl protection effort in Butte, MT. We have developed a variety of USV boat platforms to haze birds off of a mine pit and encourage them to seek elsewhere to rest. That work had been primarily a reactionary effort, and a great tool to have in the bag for the program. You can see several types of boats AppSciTec has developed for use in the program.
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What's better than moving a bird out of a hazardous environment? Never having it land in the first place! Preventative assets are also of great interest to the cause. The team has spent several years working on a fleet of 6 pontoon boats to achieve exactly that. The idea behind this specialized fleet is to bring a tool to the program that can spend 15 or 20 hours on the water and be there before there is a migration event that requires action. Every bird that decides to go elsewhere is one less bird to move off the pit.
What is a swarm? Its a group of boats that can be operated by a single person. Traditionally USVs have a 1:1 relationship with pilots to vehicles; one pilot for one boat, two boats take two pilots, three takes three... That becomes an issue at some point with too many people and too many radios required. The swarm is the answer to that problem. The radio system used to operate this kind of USV fleet is such that many rovers (boats on water) can report to a single base (pilot) on shore. This allows one person, and maybe a few helpers for deployment, to run a larger fleet and maintain a greater presence on the water with fewer workers needed on site.​
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These boats run on open source flight controllers with a customized radio network so they can drive around the pit on automated missions with flashing lights and screaming sirens. How do they stay out for so long? Each boat carries a Li-ion battery module from a Tesla to get an impressive 15+ hours of run time.
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Check out our video of them in action here
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