In May this year, an intensive Introduction to Surface Autonomy course was run for students based at the Hydrographic and Meteorological Training Unit (HMTU) at Devonport, as well as officers from the Royal Navy, the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Navy of Oman.
Led by Lecturer in Autonomy
Mr Aaron Barrett, and delivered from the
Marine Station, participants engaged in theory and practical-at-sea sessions in uncrewed surface vessel (USV) architecture, payload integration, mission planning, autonomous survey and legislation and certification.
They constructed and operated a simulated benchtop vessel, before deploying a small survey USV in the harbour to practise line-of-sight operations. They then went to sea with the University’s CWorker4 USV Cetus, where they were introduced to USV operations from a remote operations centre beyond-visual-line-of-sight, with novel AI methods used to acquire and process data.
Juan Dorje Palbar Misas, Research Assistant/Fellow in Navigation and Maritime Cyber, has also delivered training to staff from the UK Hydrographic Office staff on an Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS) Familiarisation.
This included theoretical content and practical exercises in the ship simulator, part of the University’s Marine Navigation Centre, to demonstrate how mariners will conduct passage planning and operate the system during normal operations and cyber incidents.
Using the technologies within the
Cyber-SHIP Lab, a full day of training was delivered to the Ministry of Defence’s Salvage and Mooring Operations Team (SALMO) team, which included both theoretical and practical exercises using tabletop and ship simulation scenarios.
Professor Christopher Fogwill
