TideWise and STABLE have announced successful testing of their ARIEL project, which saw a drone autonomously take off from the USV Tupan. The drone is housed on the tiny crewless ship to monitor and detect oil spills.
The trial was done all the way back in December 2020, with the announcement only being made this week by the companies. The USV Tupan drone boat was equipped with a stabilized launch pad from STABLE, which allowed the drone to stay flat no matter the conditions on the water.
The two companies also got the help of Repsol Sinopec Brasil through the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels financing scheme to complete the trials.
The drone and the ship communicated with one another to share key information like their location in an effort to make landing a little easier. Once the drone was close enough to the USV Tupan, a bottom-facing camera on the drone detected the landing pattern on the landing pad, which it knows is where it’s…
