The increasing adoption of robotic solutions for inspection tasks in challenging environments is becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly in the offshore wind energy industry. This trend is driven by the critical need to safeguard the integrity and operational efficiency of offshore infrastructure. Consequently, the design of inspection vehicles must comply with rigorous requirements established by the offshore Operation and Maintenance (O&M) industry. This work presents the design of an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV), named Nautilus, specifically tailored to withstand the demanding conditions of offshore O&M scenarios. The design encompasses both hardware and software architectures, ensuring Nautilus's robustness and adaptability to the harsh maritime environment. It presents a compact hull capable of operating in moderate sea states (wave height up to 2.5 m), with a modular hardware and software architecture that is easily adapted to the mission requirements. It has a perception payload and communication system for edge and real-time computing, communicates with a Shore Control Center and allows beyond visual line-of-sight operations. The Nautilus software architecture aims to provide the necessary flexibility for different mission requirements to offer a unified software architecture for O&M operations. Nautilus's capabilities were validated through the professional testing process of the ATLANTIS Test Center, involving operations in both near-real and real-world environments. This validation process culminated in Nautilus's reaching a Technology Readiness Level 8 and became the first ASV to execute autonomous tasks at a floating offshore wind farm located in the Atlantic.

中文翻译：

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Nautilus：具有多层软件架构的自主水面车辆，用于海上检查

在充满挑战的环境中，越来越多地采用机器人解决方案来执行检查任务，特别是在海上风能行业。这一趋势是由保护海上基础设施完整性和运营效率的迫切需求推动的。因此，检查车辆的设计必须符合海上运营和维护 (O&M) 行业制定的严格要求。这项工作展示了一种名为 Nautilus 的自主水面车辆 (ASV) 的设计，专门为承受海上运维场景的苛刻条件而定制。该设计涵盖硬件和软件架构，确保 Nautilus 的稳健性和对恶劣海上环境的适应性。它具有紧凑的船体，能够在中等海况（波高高达 2.5 m）下运行，并具有易于适应任务要求的模块化硬件和软件架构。它具有用于边缘和实时计算的感知有效负载和通信系统，与岸上控制中心通信并允许超视距操作。 Nautilus软件架构旨在为不同的任务需求提供必要的灵活性，为运维操作提供统一的软件架构。 Nautilus 的功能通过 ATLANTIS 测试中心的专业测试流程得到验证，涉及近乎真实和真实环境中的操作。这一验证过程最终使 Nautilus 达到了 8 级技术准备度，并成为第一艘在位于大西洋的浮动海上风电场执行自主任务的 ASV。