NOC Vessel Calibrator (NOViCe)

Marine radar is a powerful tool for environmental monitoring and survey with commercially available solutions to calculate water depth and tidal currents using radar images of waves on the sea surface. The majority of work in this field (both academically and commercially) uses ground-based, static radar installations. Increasingly however, interest is turning to making these remote measurements with radars on moving vessels.
In order to make oceanographic observations using radar from a moving vessel a number of 'calibration' parameters must be accurately determined in order to generate radar data of a sufficient standard for oceanographic analysis. These parameters are based on the physical installation of components on a vessel (and thus change from vessel to vessel) and are very difficult to determine manually. Recent developmental work at the NOC has generated a set of tools (the NOC Vessel Calibrator system: NOViCe) that are capable of accurately determining these offsets simply and robustly.
These developments have drawn considerable interest from Rutter Inc. - a radar company that sells radar-based environmental monitoring hardware and software (through their subsidiary OceanWaveS GmbH). The proposed pathfinder project will serve as a preliminary investigation to determine the applicability of the NOViCe software to data supplied by a commercial partner ahead of a potential license agreement and NERC Follow-on Fund. Supplying the NOViCe software to Rutter under license will enable Rutter to provide greatly enhanced vessel-based oceanographic radar data to their customers in the maritime sector.

The project will give Rutter a clear indication of what developmental work (and therefore funding) is required in order to transition the currently research-grade NOViCe algorithms to a commercially exploitable form ready for a license agreement between NOC and Rutter. Rutter are keen to have the work progressed to the licensing stage as the inclusion of the NOViCe software in their centralised software suite will greatly enhance vessel-collected radar data going in to their commercial products. This will have a direct benefit to Rutter's sales of the OceanWaveS WaMoS II wave and current monitoring system and decrease the cost associated with individual set up of vessel-based radar monitoring systems.