https://www.spl.usace.army.mil Los Angeles District News RSS Feed en-us Wed, 15 Apr 2020 17:36:00 GMT Sun, 15 Mar 2026 20:35:42 GMT https://www.spl.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Stories/Article/2152358/team-successfully-tests-new-unmanned-autonomous-surface-vessel/ Anxious at first about the specter of possible software glitches that would derail the project, the U.S. Army Engineer and Development Center’s Justin Wilkens, a research biologist with the Environmental Laboratory, soon confirmed that everything was functioning well. He and a team of other EL research biologists, including Dr. Guilherme Lotufo and Dr. Mark Ballentine, visited Vieques, an island off the coast of Puerto Rico, for five days in February to demonstrate a new unmanned autonomous surface vessel, or USV. <br/> <img src='https://media.defense.gov/2020/Apr/15/2002282327/115/75/0/200414-A-ZZ999-001.JPG' alt='The U.S. Army Engineer and Development Center’s Justin Wilkens, a research biologist with the Environmental Laboratory, checks the waypoints using the SubSeaSail’s G6 navigation software on his laptop. The unmanned surface vessel was taken to Vieques, an island off the coast of Puerto Rico, for a demonstration by Wilkens and a team of ERDC-EL research biologists, including Dr. Guilherme Lotufo and Dr. Mark Ballentine. The USV gathered data indicating the presence of munitions constituents from unexploded underwater ordnance, a problem at sites around the world. Chris Todter, far left, a SubSeaSail partner, and Tom Goddard, far right, SubSeaSail Fabrication and Testing, are also visible in the photo.' /> <br /> Wed, 15 Apr 2020 17:36:00 GMT Holly Kuzmitski https://www.spl.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Stories/Article/2152358/team-successfully-tests-new-unmanned-autonomous-surface-vessel/ Research