1. Introduction
With the rapid development of smart water conservancy and intelligent marine technology, unmanned surface vehicles have become indispensable intelligent equipment for water environment operation and water surface management. As a leading domestic provider of water surface autonomous driving technology, ORCA Tech focuses on the independent research and development of USV autonomous driving systems and water surface robot products. Relying on full-stack self-developed core technologies including multi-modal perception, high-precision positioning, intelligent decision-making and adaptive anti-wave control, ORCA has built a mature L4-level water unmanned driving system. Breaking through the technical pain points of complex water interference, unstable positioning and poor anti-interference ability of traditional unmanned boats, ORCA realizes full-automatic, unmanned and intelligent water operation, widely applied in water environment monitoring, water surface cleaning, scenic spot cruising, water security inspection and other scenarios.
2. Technical Architecture of ORCA Unmanned Driving System
ORCA adopts a mature and reliable four-layer technical framework:Perception Layer, Positioning Layer, Decision-Making Layer and Motion Control Layer. Combined with self-developed shore-based intelligent management platform and automatic charging system, it forms a closed-loop intelligent operation system covering autonomous navigation, intelligent operation, remote monitoring and automatic energy supplement. Different from land autonomous driving, ORCA optimizes algorithms and hardware for the unique characteristics of water flow fluctuation, water surface reflection, fog occlusion and complex water obstacles. It adapts to variable marine working conditions and achieves stable and reliable autonomous driving performance in complex inland rivers, lakes and coastal waters.
3. Core Autonomous Driving Technologies of ORCA
3.1 Multi-modal Fusion Perception Technology
ORCA equips unmanned boats with self-developed 4D millimeter-wave radar, high-definition vision cameras, LiDAR and infrared sensing equipment to build an all-weather 360° dead-angle-free perception network. Based on massive water surface driving data samples, the self-developed perception algorithm effectively suppresses interference such as water surface reflection, light refraction and dense fog. It can accurately identify floating garbage, aquatic plants, passing ships, shoreline reefs and navigation buoys. The multi-sensor complementary mechanism ensures stable perception performance day and night, greatly reducing environmental misjudgment and improving the safety of water navigation.
3.2 Centimeter-level High-precision Integrated Positioning Technology
Aiming at the problems of severe water signal interference and easy positioning drift, ORCA adopts Beidou high-precision positioning combined with inertial navigation algorithm. It is equipped with an independently developed marine AI controller to optimize positioning calculation logic. Even in sheltered waters such as bridge holes and dense port buildings, the system can still maintain stable positioning. The dynamic compensation algorithm automatically offsets the position deviation caused by water flow, wind waves and surges, realizing centimeter-level control accuracy. It supports fixed-point hovering, precise route cruising and automatic berthing to meet high-precision operation requirements.
3.3 Three-level Intelligent Decision-Making and COLREGs Obstacle Avoidance Technology
ORCA builds an exclusive water surface intelligent decision tree, combining international maritime collision avoidance rules (COLREGs) and the driving experience of senior captains. The decision system is divided into three logic layers: rule constraint layer, vessel intention prediction layer and game confrontation layer. It can intelligently judge the sailing intention of different vessels such as cargo ships, kayaks and fishing boats. When encountering sudden obstacles, the system dynamically deduces multiple avoidance paths, independently completes deceleration, route change and hovering actions, and selects the safest and most efficient navigation strategy. This technology realizes intelligent interaction and safe avoidance between ships.
3.4 Adaptive Anti-wave Motion Control Technology
Based on the six-degree-of-freedom hull motion model, ORCA independently develops anti-wind and wave control algorithms. The system monitors hull attitude, water flow velocity and wind speed in real time, dynamically adjusting thrust and heading angle. It can stably operate in complex sea conditions with a wave height of 1.5 meters, effectively suppressing hull shaking and yawing. Whether in low-speed refined cleaning and monitoring or long-distance continuous cruising, the unmanned boat maintains smooth navigation status, improving operational stability and service life.
3.5 Intelligent Management and Unmanned Cluster Technology
ORCA supports remote cloud platform monitoring, real-time data transmission and one-click manual intervention. The shore-based management platform displays ship position, navigation track, equipment status and environmental monitoring data in real time. Meanwhile, it realizes multi-boat cluster collaborative operation, supporting formation cruise and regional division of labor. Matched with the intelligent unmanned charging station, the unmanned boat can automatically return to charge and carry out uninterrupted cyclic operation, realizing truly unattended full-process intelligent management.
4. Main Product Line and Application Scenarios
4.1 Water Surface Environmental Operation
Covering SMURF intelligent cleaning boat and TITAN heavy-duty cleaning unmanned boat, it automatically collects floating garbage, algae and water weeds. It is widely used in urban inland rivers, scenic lakes and reservoir water surface management to reduce manual labor costs.
4.2 Water Quality Monitoring and Hydrological Survey
Equipped with customized water quality sensors, the unmanned boat continuously monitors pH value, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and other water quality indicators. It conducts underwater topographic mapping and hydrological data collection to provide reliable data support for water conservancy digital management.
4.3 Water Security and Patrol Inspection
With infrared night vision and panoramic monitoring function, it realizes 24-hour all-weather water patrol. It is applicable to reservoir safety management, coastal defense inspection and illegal fishing supervision to improve water safety management efficiency.
4.4 Commercial Ship Intelligent Assistance
The self-developed ORCA-APAS intelligent navigation system provides auxiliary driving functions for medium and large commercial ships, optimizing navigation safety and reducing manual operation pressure.
5. Technical Advantages and Industry Honors
As a potential unicorn enterprise in the domestic civil unmanned boat industry, ORCA Tech has achieved full independent research and development of core hardware such as marine AI controllers and millimeter-wave radars. It owns the industry’s longest water unmanned driving mileage and the world’s leading water surface autonomous driving data set. It has obtained the industry’s first marine-grade perception and autonomous navigation system type approval certificate, belonging to the domestic high-standard L4-level unmanned driving certification product. With mature technology and reliable products, ORCA has been deployed in nearly 1,000 unmanned vessels in more than 10 countries.
6. Conclusion
ORCA Tech deeply empowers the intelligent upgrading of water industries with self-developed unmanned driving technology. Through multi-modal perception, centimeter-level positioning, intelligent game decision-making and anti-wave control technology, ORCA breaks the technical bottleneck of traditional water equipment. With safe, efficient and unattended intelligent operation capabilities, ORCA covers multiple scenarios such as environmental protection, water conservancy, cultural tourism and maritime affairs. In the future, ORCA will continue to iterate autonomous driving algorithms, expand cluster intelligent collaboration technology, and commit to building a global leading intelligent water ecosystem, making water surfaces smarter and water management simpler.
