C-Job Naval Architects revealed its concept design of an Autonomous Underwater Maintenance Dredger (AUMD) today.
The design was presented by the independent ship design and engineering company at the combined Maritime and Port Technology and Development Conference (MTEC) and international Conference on Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (ICMASS) in Trondheim, Norway.
The Autonomous Underwater Maintenance Dredger (AUMD) concept design , developed by C-Job’s Research and Development department, is specifically created for maintenance in port environments.
This design is sustainable as it requires significantly less power compared to a conventional dredger, said the company in its release.
The AUMD is equipped with a 16MWh battery pack that provides enough power for up to 12 hours of maintenance dredging.
Rolph Hijdra, Autonomous Vessels Research Lead at C-Job , said: “When we developed this exciting design, we performed a comparison study with a conventional Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger. This showed that the Autonomous Underwater Maintenance Dredger requires 55% less propulsion power and by submersing the vessel we could reduce the suction head cutting the dredge pump power demand by 80%.”
The submersion of the design also increases operability as it mitigates wave motions as she’s capable to remain submerged throughout the dredging cycle. She only needs to surface for repair, maintenance and charging her batteries, said the company.
The AUMD features the same hopper volume as the traditional dredger even though the overall length of C-Job’s design has been reduced by 20%.