Val Schmidt
Principal Research Project Manager
UNH Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping
&
Avery Muñoz
Research Project Engineer
UNH Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping
Friday, April 4, 2025, 3:10pm
Chase 105
Abstract
In March 2023, UNH’s DriX-08 — an Uncrewed Surface Vehicle built by the Exail (La Ciotat, France) — became the first Starlink-equipped DriX vehicle, enabling operations beyond traditional line-of-sight radio. Initial tests aboard E/V Nautilus were promising and, in 2024, UNH advanced this work, aiming to operate DriX-8 remotely from shore and reach a survey site over 100 nautical miles from port. Funded by NOAA’s Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute, the “NA164 Samoa I” expedition served as a proving ground for long-range, over-the-horizon (OTH) operations in a remote setting. Building on this success, UNH launched a second major expedition in September 2025, testing the feasibility of simultaneously operating two DriX vehicles from a single shore-based watch station. In collaboration with NOAA’s Uncrewed Systems Division and the Office of Coast Survey and others, the team conducted a dual-DriX seafloor survey in the Gulf of Maine. The expedition focused on making dual-vehicle operations safe, efficient, and economical. This talk will review mission objectives, preparations, challenges, and key lessons from these pioneering efforts in remote uncrewed operations.
Bios
Val Schmidt leads the Center’s marine robotics program, where he and a team of engineers and graduate students solve problems to “make autonomy practical.” Val holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics with Honors from the University of the South, (Sewanee, TN, 1994), and a Master of Science in Ocean Engineering, with an emphasis in Ocean Mapping, from the University of New Hampshire’ s Category A Hydrographic program, (Durham, NH, 2008). From 1994-2000, Val served in the U.S. Navy as an Officer in the U.S. submarine fleet, as Radiological Controls Officer and later Sonar Officer aboard the USS Hawkbill. Since 2008, he and his team at CCOM have deployed un-crewed vehicles, from shore and from ships at sea, for marine science and seafloor mapping missions around the world, including recent missions with autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) from NOAA Ship Fairweather (2018), Exploration Vessel Nautilus (2017, 2018, 2021, 2022 x3), NOAA Ship Shearwater (2017), and NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson (2019 and 2022). Val has also deployed ASVs from shore in NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary (2019 and 2021), and countless other day deployments from our own vessel and from shore off the New Hampshire coast.
Avery Muñoz is a Research Project Engineer in the Center's ASV lab. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Wentworth Institute of Technology, with a background in robotics, custom automation and AUVs. At UNH, Avery works as an engineer on the autonomous surface vehicle project developing control systems and tools to assist research.
