Oceanalpha’s Collaborative USV Show Amazed the World

On February 15th, an incredible unmanned surface vessels (USV) fleet was staged at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. The bridge, which has just been completed, is the longest sea- crossing bridge in the world, connecting Zhuhai with Hong Kong and Macao.

The Bridge became a spectacular background for the show at the night. A 7.5-meter-long marine USV leads eighty 1.6-meter-long USVs to form a shape of arrow to sail through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge.

The USV fleet then compiled into two Chinese charters “启航” which means ‘set sail’ and headed for the door of “the new era” made up of drones in the sky. The lights and fireworks lighted up the ocean dream of China.

The show indicates the development of China’s unmanned technology which is now moving to a new era with firm steps.

This is the first time Oceanalpha showcases its multi-vessel collaboration. Nearly a hundred of USVs were produced within two months and turned into water dancers by collaborative programming. It’s also the first time in the industry that 81 USV operates simultaneously.

The sea condition of the show is between SS-2 to SS-3. Faced with environmental disturbances such as strong wind and waves, Oceanalpha team adopted robust and adaptive control technology to ensure smooth control of the fleet. High-precision GNSS and Integrated inertial navigation, combined with RTK technology, ensures the precise route of USVs. In addition to controlling and navigating formations, Oceanalpha team adopted a tracking algorithm based on the virtual leader combined with the path to realize formation-conversion and automatic collision avoidance of a massive number of vessels.

Before this show, only the US military has conducted a multiple USV cooperative operation and the highest public record is 13 USVs, no similar public presentation has been demonstrated ever. The performance on China’s CCTV spring festival gala is the first in the world to achieve the massive number of USV working together which presents a spectacular world-class show.

“This is not just a performance, it is a tribute to future marine survey and exploration by mankind, especially the start of new technological methods in geophysical survey. In the near future, USV will be more efficient to play its own technical characteristics and gradually replaces the traditional mode of the manned survey with a new payload, new methods of operation, high-density cluster collaboration in an unprecedented way. ” said CEO of Oceanalpha Zhang Yunfei.