Vehicle and Mission Control of the DELFIM Autonomous Surface Craft

DELFIM is an autonomous surface craft developed at ISR/IST for automatic marine data acquisition and to serve as an acoustic relay between submerged craft and a support vessel. The paper describes the navigation, guidance, and control systems of the vehicle, together with the mission control system that allows end-users to seamlessly program and run scientific missions at sea. Practical results obtained during sea tests in the Atlantic, near Azores islands, are briefly summarized and discussed.