Navy proves autonomous-ready refueling for unmanned drone boat off Virginia
TL;DR Summary
The U.S. Navy demonstrated an underway refueling of a 38-foot unmanned boat (T38) using a towable capture and connection device off Virginia, transferring about 400 gallons across around 100 connection cycles; while the boat itself was remotely controlled, a human steered the fuel probe during the process, signaling progress toward fully autonomous endurance and outlining the next steps to remove human inputs and reduce latency.
- A 38-foot drone boat that once spent 192 hours alone at sea came up behind a float towed by a Navy ship off Virginia, pushed a fuel probe into it, took on 400 gallons over dozens of hookups and let go each time, and somebody was steering the probe on ever Autonocion.com
- U.S. Navy Demonstrates USV Refueling At Sea Using Robotic Towed Connector navalnews.com
- Naval Warfare Center Showcases Unmanned Refueling at Sea U.S. Department of War (.gov)
- US Navy refuels drone boat at sea using robotic connector in 100 trials Interesting Engineering
- Refueling the Mesh: What a Robotic Connector Off Virginia Tells Us About the Autonomous Fleet’s Missing Link SLDinfo.com
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