SWAMP, an Autonomous Surface Vehicle expressly designed for extremely shallow waters

Wetlands, the geographic areas where water meets the earth, are ecosystems essential for life and an increasing number of conventions, directives and research projects recognise the necessity of protecting them. Nevertheless the number, quality and spacial resolution of surveys is modest due to the absence of expressly addressed tools. In this paper the design, construction and testing of the first prototype of an innovative class of Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASVs) for the extremely shallow water and remote areas of wetlands is presented. SWAMP (Shallow Water Autonomous Multipurpose Platform) is a full y electric, modular, portable, lightweight, and highly-controllable ASV. It is a catamaran, equipped with four thrusters azimuth Pump-Jet thrusters that are flush with the hull and specifically designed for this vehicle. SWAMP is also characterised by small draft soft-foam, unsinkable hull structure with high modularity and a flexible hardware/software architecture. Each hull can be considered as a single vehicle, being equipped with a full navigation, guidance and control package, as well as propulsion, power and communication systems. The extreme modularity is also guaranteed thanks to the adoption of on-board Wi-Fi communication architecture: the two mono-hull vehicles are connected via Wi-Fi as well as all the modules aboard each of them.