Electric and unmanned boat developed by Vario Drive and MAHI
? The two Belgian companies are building a fully electric & autonomous vessel in record time. In February, the collaboration between Vario Drive and MAHI started. The goal of the two companies is to showcase both Torqeedo & MAHI products on an easily transportable vessel. Besides being converted to a fully electric vessel, it is also equipped with the latest navigation technology from MAHI. Making it one of the most innovative small vessels.
Vario Drive is currently converting the petrol-powered RIB into a fully electric vessel using Torqeedo’s Cruise 6.0 outboard and a 48V battery system. Vario Drive makes the fully electric vessel available to the Solar Boat team of the University of Antwerp where it will serve as the chase and support vessel.
MAHI is showcasing its situational awareness, collision avoidance and vessel control capabilities through the integration of MAHI Sense. This product was announced at the Oceanology International Conference of London in March 2022. MAHI’s focus is on robust and easy-to-integrate hardware and software.
?Statement Erik Wouters, CEO of Vario Drive: “The vessel demonstrates, not only the capability of electric vessels but also, the ease of installation of these electric systems and the ability to convert an existing fossil-fueled boat to an electric one with limited effort. This platform will illustrate how electric installations are done in a professional way.”
? Statement Pieter-Jan Note, CEO of MAHI: “At MAHI, we are thrilled to continue the great collaboration we had with Vario Drive and Torqeedo over the past 7 years. This project showcases how turnkey the conversion from manual to a fully autonomous RIB using the MAHI Sense product can be. The MAHI Sense product covers the hardware deployed on the vessel (edge hardware), software running on the vessel (edge computing) and software for remote operation. The vessel will have several control modes ranging from onboard control to fully autonomous operation.”
?? Source: Mahi