Swiftships, a longtime builder of fast vessels for defense and commercial uses, teamed with the University of Louisiana-Lafayette in February to demonstrate a remotely controlled prototype fast craft, called Anaconda, for a wide range of riverine missions.
Swiftships competes in global markets for smaller naval ships. The company has delivered 13 120-foot coastal patrol boats to the Iraqi navy under a 15-ship contract and has a long-term agreement with the Egyptian navy to co-produce 25-foot patrol boats in Egypt. It also has built ships to support offshore drilling operations for U.S. and international oil and natural-gas companies.
Eric Geibel, Swiftships director of special programs, said the company (formerly Sewart Seacraft) traces its experience in fast boats to its work on the U.S. Navy swift boats that were used in Vietnam War brown-water riverine campaigns. Swiftships is working with the mechanical-engineering faculty and a team of engineering graduate students at UL-Lafayette to integrate new sensor and control technologies into the Swiftships’ Anaconda hullform, which was built initially for special-operations missions.
The 15,500-pound, 35-foot Anaconda is powered by two Yanmar electronic diesel engines and two Rolls-Royce waterjets, giving the craft an endurance speed of 35-plus knots to a range of 200 nautical miles, and maximum speed of more than 50 knots.
Geibel said UL-Lafayette worked with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2004–05 on the development of an autonomous all-terrain vehicle called Cajunbot for DARPA’s Grand Challenge competition. Swiftships and the university then formed a partnership to modify the UL guidance-and-control systems for the fast-riverine craft configuration.
In the February demonstration, conducted on the Atchafalaya River near Morgan City, Louisiana, operators controlled the unmanned Anaconda using an iPad by touching the screen to guide the craft in a range of maneuvers and turns.
Geibel said that the goal of the project is to develop fully autonomous capability for multiple craft for many military, law-enforcement, and commercial riverine operations. Naval and special-operations missions for the craft include resupply of remote bases and surveillance and intelligence-gathering along river channels and near ports. Potential commercial applications include surveying hazardous areas, such as waterways contaminated by dangerous gases or radiation.
As an example, Geibel cited the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima power plant in Japan in March 2011 following the Tohoku earthquake, which led to release of toxic radiation. The autonomously controlled Anaconda could survey water, atmospheric, and soil conditions, eliminating the need to risk personnel on dangerous survey work in a contaminated environment.
The team is continuing development of the control and navigation system, which will include lasers, cameras, and ultrasound sensors to monitor currents and waves and detect hazards in the water, such as logs and other river traffic.
Geibel added that while the craft would conduct their missions autonomously, a human operator would monitor operations from a remote control site and could intervene if necessary.
In-water demonstrations will continue through late summer as the Swiftships-UL team continues development of the advanced systems and the control software to support more complex operating parameters.
The Anaconda’s control systems can be integrated with the craft as modular, mission-oriented packages, similar to the Navy’s approach in developing the surface-warfare, mine-countermeasures, and antisubmarine-warfare modules for the littoral combat ship program.
“Versatility is the key” to the Anacaonda program, said Geibel, adding that the insertion of new technologies within the proven hullform could be modified to meet Navy or Special Operations Command requirements for a high-speed, autonomously controlled craft. While riverine operations is the niche market for the Anaconda, it also would be capable of operating effectively in coastal regions.