A highly controllable asv for extremely shallow waters

This paper presents the hydrodynamics aspects of an innovative Autonomous Surface Vehicle, designed to meet the requirement of accessing the extremely shallow waters peculiar of wetlands. SWAMP (Shallow Water Autonomous Multipurpose Platform) is a fully electric, modular, portable, lightweight, and highly-controllable ASV. It is a catamaran, equipped with ad-hoc designed azimuth Pump-Jet actuators, and characterized by small draft soft-foam, unsinkable hull structure with high modularity and a flexible hardware/software architecture. SWAMP is double-ended to enhance manoeuvrability in narrow space. The SWAMP prototype has been tested in a towing tank, verifying its expected performance.