VESSEL REVIEW | Fremantle 02 – Optionally crewed boat for surveys off Western Australia
EGS Australia has added a second optionally crewed uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) to its survey fleet following the christening of Fremantle 02 in late August 2026.
The 12-metre (39-foot) vessel is the second in a series and the first production-ready craft in EGS’ autonomy programme.
The USV was developed for hydrographic and geophysical survey on the continental shelf and it can operate in crewed, remotely controlled and autonomous configurations. This allows personnel to be embarked when a mission, client, or regulator requires local control.
Its first assignment is seabed mapping for the Australian Hydrographic Office under the Royal Australian Navy's HydroScheme Industry Partnership Program (HIPP). EGS plans to deploy the vessel alongside sister Fremantle 01 in the Timor Sea on 10-day offshore rotations, with both vessels supervised remotely from Fremantle.
Construction influenced by lessons learned from operation of sister vessel
The vessel utilises an EGS design developed jointly with naval architects and marine engineers. A flatpack method was used to construct the aluminium hull.
Capral Aluminium supplied and cut the material, and Sealed Fabrication assembled the hull at Bibra Lake. Mechanical, electrical, survey and autonomy fitout was completed at EGS Autonomy's facility in South Fremantle.
EGS said time spent operating Fremantle 01, launched in January 2025, informed refinements to the new vessel's hull, onboard systems, stability, weight distribution and autonomous operation.
The first vessel was put through field work and testing in seas measuring four to five metres (13 to 16 feet) off Western Australia's south coast.
Long-endurance vessel for sustained surveys
When construction of Fremantle 02 began in November 2025, the company listed five improvement targets: enhanced manoeuvrability and stability; longer endurance; a modular sensor architecture; increased payload capacity; and a simplified end user control suite.
EGS said the USV has an endurance of 15 days and a range of 2,000 nautical miles. The company’s USVs are certified for uncrewed operation up to 200 nautical miles offshore.
The published baseline for Fremantle 01 includes a single Yanmar 4JH110 engine driving a shaft and open propeller, a 5.5kWe Mase Mariner 550S generator, approximately 2,050 litres (450 gallons) of fuel, a gyrostabiliser, and a sprint speed of 14 knots.
Full data-gathering sensor suite
The survey suite fitted to the first vessel centred on a dual-head, quad-swath Kongsberg EM2042 multibeam sonar mounted on a ballasted gondola and lowered through a moonpool for survey work and raised for shallow-water operation or for sprinting in crewed workboat mode. The hull was designed to limit slamming and bubble entrapment around the sonar.
The suite also includes an Innomar Standard sub-bottom profiler, an EdgeTech 4200-series side-scan sonar, magnetometer capability, and an Applanix POS MV for position and motion compensation. The hull can launch and recover payloads below 200 kg (440 lb).
A Furuno radar aids in navigation.
Autonomous navigation and vessel control are provided by Greenroom Robotics' GAMA software. The system uses an onboard vessel control unit and a remote control unit, with COLREGs-aware collision avoidance and a hierarchical failsafe system. Starlink and Iridium provided over-the-horizon links.
EGS' own failsafe and failover systems were tested alongside GAMA during the vessel's sea acceptance trials. Bureau Veritas granted GAMA approval in principle in February 2026 under its NI641 Guidelines for Autonomous Shipping.
Lightweight design coupled with improved fuel efficiency
Personnel at a remote operations centre in Fremantle operate the vessels around the clock. USV pilots, hydrographic surveyors, an operations manager, and a logistics assistant are included in the staff.
The USV is also road-transportable. The companies estimated that a road mobilisation from Fremantle to the Kimberley Region takes about two days, against about seven by sea for a traditional survey vessel, in addition to saving approximately 2,000 litres (440 gallons) of fuel.
The companies said that during its 42-day HIPP mission east of Esperance, Fremantle 01 used 94 per cent less diesel than a traditional vessel, and its running costs were as much as 75 per cent below those for crewed survey operations.
"Fremantle 02 builds on those results and marks the beginning of an optionally crewed fleet that will enable us to deliver high-quality survey services more efficiently and with a substantially reduced environmental footprint," said EGS Australia Chief Surveyor Charles Collins.
Both EGS and Greenroom Robotics expect the two vessels operating together to complete missions in approximately half the time without increasing the number of personnel at sea.