Experimental Catamaran with active X-Y-Z stabilization from "Velodyne Marine"

I saw this recently at the Miami boat show.



This experimental 35ft, 2000lb capacity cat is version 1.5, which has been tested at 30 mph speeds in seas of 5 feet, using an electrical pneumatic system that "instantly" corrects X, Y and Z movement.

See [B]http://velodynemarine.com/research.html[/B]

Version 2.0 will be a 45ft cat at 50 mph with 7 feet of travel.

(I didn't really know what this was at the time when I recorded this video)




In this test-run video, notice how steady the horizon line is, especially at the 0:31 and 0:46 second mark:




The inventor, David Hall, is probably best known for the 2005, first real time 3D Lidar viewing system, for 3D mapping and autonomous vehicles, used by Google, the military and other projects.

A couple of Velodyne LiDAR examples:

Car driving in street:


boat in a marina:



Apparently, he's a very prolific inventor:
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=pts&hl=en&q=velodyne&btnG=

 

And look how flat the sea is...and how short the period/wave length is of those 2 waves are....

 

I had the same initial thoughts.

I'm assuming that Version 2.0 sea-trials will show more aggressive conditions, since, in order to eventually be profitable, most likely the target market will be passenger ferries. We'll see.

 

They are trying for the windfarm market.

They are 1 of 13 winners of the Carbon Trust competition selected to peruse their invention for windfarm market, and winning a bursary for more research:

there is one (similar?) shown here called nauti-craft:
http://www.nauti-craft.com/

 

?Link?

Maybe not...


"The creators of Nauti-Craft include the inventor/founder Chris Heyring..." from Dunsborough Western Australia does not appear to be David S Hall nor Velodyne, based in Morgan Hill, California. They don't use divided hulls, it appears.

I did find a reference for the Velodyne LiDAR optical system where it appears in connection with one "Carbon Trust" project.


I thought the SWATH boats had the wind farm market all to themselves, since they're the only vessels I've seen in that application. I'm mistaken.

 

Ad Hoc, I'm reading through the Carbon Trust pages, ambitious and fascinating.

I'm assuming that personnel access onto the turbine station is not performed below the waves due to added complexity/cost.

 

Oh my bad. They both looked the same, i just assumed (I should not have), since i didn't think there would be too many about being the same.

Oh well, sorry about that.

 

Not a problem.

I'd like to see the Nauti-craft and the Velodyne cat in a side-by-side in the North Sea.

The Nauti-craft uses their "Kinetic" mechanical technology, used in automotive applications. It's a 'passive reactive' hydraulic suspension system, taking advantage of inertia/momentum, while the Velodyne uses an active computational approach that attempts to keep a level platform even when still, so, at this preliminary stage, I would bet on the Velodyne for wind farm service during 3 meter conditions.

Isn't periodic vertical motion an ideal application for an active system?

Notice in this test video @ 1:23, the still significant aft vertical displacement:

 

The music on these videos is truly s.... At first sight and reading, it looks very similar to the hydropneumatic car suspension invented by Citroen in 1954 for the DS. I always thought it could be used on a small motor cat. The big problem is durability with all these articulations. Vey expensive also with high maintenance.

 

Quite a few years ago, Japanese researchers built a protoype ferry with the passenger cabin actively suspended.

It remained little more than an interesting science project, of course. The power required for the active suspension system was problematic enough, and if I recall correctly, there some unresolved issues with how to deal with travel limiting in "higher" sea states.


But to the subject of windmill support vessels..I suspect we'll see a number of ideas emerge. I'm aware of at least two other designs that use some form of active heave compensation, at least.

 

helicopters are too dangerous?

 

Too expensive and limited capacity.

 

The stability of this system is amazing!
Who invented this one?