UNMANNED SURFACE VEHICLE (USV) FOR COASTAL SURVEILLANCE

The purpose of this paper is to design and fabricate an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) for the coastal surveillance for the maritime of India. It aims to monitor territorial waters on a round-the-clock basis and allows the intelligence to take appropriate action to prevent terrorism, illegal smuggling and human trafficking as the continuous use of an aircraft for surveillance is prohibitively expensive along the Indian coastline which is a massive stretch measuring 7,517km.In this paper an Air Cushioned Vehicle (ACV) popularly known as a Hovercraft is chosen for surveillance as it has the ability to traverse any surface compared to other coastguard vessels thereby earning the title of amphibious boats. Its ability to access 75% of littoral allows them to come on shore during emergencies unlike conventional coastguards that have only 5% littoral access and cannot enter shallow water. Another major advantage of using this surface vehicle is it is easy to operate and noiseless compared to conventional vessels that generate wakes at high speeds unlike the ACV.