The French National Hydrography and Oceanography Service (Service national d’hydrographie et d’océanographie; SHOM) has taken delivery of a new unmanned surface vehicle (USV) from French maritime robotics specialist Exail.
The eight-metre craft has been named Marlin. It belongs to a series of USVs originally developed by French technology company Ixblue prior to its merger with the ECA Group in 2022 to form Exail.
The hull is made out of composite material, making the USV lighter than vessels made from steel or aluminium. It also means the craft is not susceptible to corrosion.
The use of a lightweight hull also enables the USV to be powered by smaller engines for the same level of performance, resulting in lower fuel consumption, reduced GHG emissions, and less radiated noise in the water.
The craft's shape and stability allow for very high-speed capabilities, reducing transit downtime and providing high survey speeds with improved data quality harvested in significantly less time.
All sensors are embedded within a gondola located two metres below the surface, in a highly reduced-noise and bubble-free environment to offer optimum conditions for high-quality data acquisition.
Marlin will be supervised 24 hours a day by SHOM personnel. Its initial deployment is scheduled for the spring of 2026.