Industrial Research of ROC for swarm operations

ACUA Ocean (AO) is a clean-maritime start-up that has designed (patent pending) a long-endurance liquid hydrogen-powered maritime autonomous surface ship (MASS), also referred to as an uncrewed surface vessel (USV). By combining two of the fastest growing technologies in the maritime sector: hydrogen and autonomy, our vessels can deliver increased offshore endurance of up to 70 days at 5 Knots and a range of 8400 Nm as well as environmental benefits by reducing GHG by 99.1% compared to traditional maritime vessels.

Accelerating the adoption of automation in the maritime sector is also critical to increasing productivity and safety at sea, removing humans from dangerous and life-threatening roles and moving those jobs into high-skilled technology roles in Remote Operation Centres (ROCs).

However, the rapid commercialisation of autonomous technologies is dependent upon the force multiplier effect. With MASS this is the ability to operate multiple vessels in a swarm for maximum geographic coverage, known as distributed maritime operations.

Deployment of swarms of vessels increases coverage for both security, protection, ocean monitoring and data collection at reduced cost through the optimisation of remote operator levels. Swarms further support cost efficiency savings through the ability to manufacture and operate vessels at scale - reducing cost to the end customer.

This project looks to accelerate the UK's position as a world leader in robotics and autonomous systems through the feasibility and development of a remote operating centre (ROC) for swarm operations. This project examines the feasibility of the regulatory, Artificial Intelligence, human behavioural science, command and control software integration, physical and engineering design of Remote Operation Centres (ROC) and reviews the command and control (C2) systems needed for the management of swarms. AO will look to further evaluate their command and control solution in complex scenarios involving swarms. The project will also evaluate a suite of edge-based compute technologies for BVLOS and over-the-horizon communication scenarios. Additionally, software tools will help validate processes that will mitigate operator burden through reduction in direct control required to safely operate the hydrogen system and process multi-domain sensor data on-board the vessel. This project will take a huge step forward in enabling safer swarm and vessel operations.

The regulatory, operational and technical deliverables and know-how established during this feasibility research will enable the accelerated adoption of multiple types of autonomous vessels across the maritime industry.