SEAWORKER Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV)

The C-Worker 5 is an autonomous surface vessel by L3 Harris that is equipped with a 57hp diesel engine and has a top speed of 8 knots, endurance of up to one week, and a 5.6m x 1.8m footprint. The vessel comes equipped with AIS, radar, multiple shore communication systems (cell, iridium, and VHF), as well as a 360 degree visible and infrared camera system for situational awareness. Also included is a winch and a-frame for profiling sensors from the ship’s stern. There is a payload bay inside the hull to house electronics and data acquisition systems to sample additional vessel-mounted and vessel-profiled sensor packages.

The SEAWORKER (Submesoscale Environment, Autonomous Weather and Oceanic Research embarKER) is the Air-Sea Interaction Laboratory’s specific version which combines the C-WORKER 5 platform with a custom instrument payload package designed to sample the upper ocean and lower atmosphere. The payload is currently under development and the instrument list below will be updated as the integration evolves.

C-Worker 5 Specifications:
5.6m long x 1.8m wide x 4.7m tall
3500lbs dry, 5000lbs fully fueled
57hp diesel engine
200 gallon fuel capacity with 1 week maximum endurance
VHF, cell, and iridium shore communication systems

SEAWORKER Payload Instrumentation:
Gill R3-50 (x3) sonic anemometers
Campbell Scientific HygroVUE10 (x3) air temperature and relative humidity
Vaisala WXT536 weather station
OSIL Hammerhead towbody
RBR Concierto conductivity, temperature, and pressure profiler
Teledyne RDI Workhorse 300khz downward-looking acoustic doppler current profiler
Novatel SPAN LN200 with Propak6 inertial navigation system (combined GPS & IMU) with dual Antcom GPS antennas
Lowrance 4G marine radar
Airmar 220WX weather station
Hemisphere VS330 dual GPS antenna receiver
L3 Harris ASV360VIR 360 degree camera system
Leosphere Windcube wind profiler

SEAWORKER Media
Image gallery of the SEAWORKER during its inital deployment in Mission Bay in July 2021.