Brief: Interoperability Among Unmanned Maritime Vehicles: Review And First In-Field Experiment
- Setondji V. Nahum
- Aug 30, 2020
- 4 min read
Course: Application of Unmanned Systems
Introduction
Unmanned Maritime Systems (UMS) are integrated sets of computerized control sub-systems, advanced technological components and elements designed for autonomous operations or remotely piloted operations on the surface of water bodies and or within such surfaces. They can be used for multiple applications including deep sea exploration, naval warfare, and freight shipping ( E.S.A., n.d.). An analysis of their usage in both the military and civilian sectors indicates tremendous improvement and benefits which include lower operational time and cost, lower human risks and rapid deployability. The unmanned marine vehicles market is expected to register a CAGR of 11.7% during the forecast period 2019-2024 (Global Unmanned Marine Vehicles Market Overview & Outlook, 2019). With such a high increase in number of UMS expected to be used in civil and military applications, engineers and manufacturers are focused on design improvements as well as technological advancements. Future design and development efforts for unmanned maritime systems are focused on improving existing civil and military capabilities through enhanced mission control interfaces, communications systems, and interoperability.
Costanzi et. al. discuss the future of unmanned maritime systems through an evaluation of UMS technology and their operational uses. In their article titled: “Interoperability Among Unmanned Maritime Vehicles: Review and First In-field Experimentation”, they highlight the need for development of effective interoperability framework between unmanned systems, human operators, and legacy platforms. Through a background of current UMS application issues and research projects , Costanzi et. al. demonstrate that interoperability is the future of unmanned maritime systems (Costanzi et. al., 2020).
Discussion
Interoperability is the ability of software or hardware systems to operate together successfully with minimal effort by the end-users (Costanzi et.al., 2020). The design of interoperable UMS, both among them and with humans, is essential for the successful completion of their missions. An optimization of UMS’ capabilities requires the development of multi-national and multi-domain operation with multi-vendor and multi-protocol systems. Unstandardized UMV’ mission control interfaces have presented significant hurdles to complex operations due to the need for systems-to-system communication (Costanzi et.al., 2020). Underwater conditions also present substantial communication challenges such as multipath arrival structure, channel spread and low data exchange rates. Interoperability and system modularity are currently a priority among engineering challenges being faced by UMS and marine robotics systems and technologies manufacturers (Costanzi et.al., 2020).
The main challenges faced by engineers today as it pertains to the development of interoperable UMS include: multi-format aggregated data processing; federated distributed computing; open standards, architectures and equipment; collaborative, opportunistic, advanced communication; and interoperable, realistic integrated modeling and simulation environment (Costanzi et.al., 2020). UMS lack the capability to efficiently process multi-format data and algorithm from various platforms and global manufacturers. The inability of UMS operating systems to quickly incorporate or adapt to new modules has been a major barrier to interoperability. Global engineers and manufacturers agree that the development of a common set of design and development standards will foster advancement in the design of interoperable UMS across the globe (Costanzi et.al., 2020). Since UMS are operated on the surface or deep within water bodies, they are constrained to low bandwidth due to the use of underwater acoustic channels. Moreover, the cost of in-field experimentation with UMS is very high. This issue presents its own set of challenges which has led to a need for a cost-effective design of scalable UMS models for the purpose of interoperability simulations and tests (Costanzi et.al., 2020).
Recommendation
The future of UMS applications and technology will involve operational uses that require high reconfigurability, easy scalability, rapid deployability, precision, high speed communication and low operational cost. UMS will be evaluated for high precision uses like torpedoes deflection and counter mechanism or systems and extra-solar planets’ liquid bodies exploration missions. Achieving such objectives necessitates the design and development of interoperable UMS which will not exhibit system issues such as communication delays; inefficient joint operations, planning and execution sub-systems and one-dimensional mission control interfaces. This is supported by Costanzi et. al. as they highlight the critical need for future UMS to be equipped with a clear interoperability framework between unmanned systems, human operators, and legacy platforms (Costanzi et.al., 2020). It is important to note the necessity for interoperable UMS with human operators because of the additional risks and cost that human operators and human decisions making add to the overall systems.
The need to achieve UMS interoperability shall drive engineers and manufacturers to mitigate and solve navigation and communication issues that currently characterizes unmanned maritime systems. Engineering challenges and sources of errors in acoustic navigation and communication are mainly due to the physical limitations of the speed of sound in water and variations in water temperature and density ( Martin et. al, 2019). There is a direct correlation between these factors and the low bandwidth of underwater acoustic channels. Engineers shall evaluate the possibility of establishing large tethered communications systems. Although hardwired communications restrict the distance an UMS may travel from its control station, integrated sets of large hardwired communication stations and platform across a mission’s domain will significantly mitigate common issues such as communication delays, delayed live data feeds and data signal processing challenges.
Conclusion
To conclude, Unmanned Maritime Systems are used for multiple applications from ocean exploration missions to military applications. There have been tremendous benefits to UMS usage, and such include lower operational time and cost, lower human risks and rapid deployability. Interoperability is the future of design and development efforts for unmanned maritime systems. The main challenges faced by engineers today as it pertains to the development of interoperable UMS include: multi-format aggregated data processing; federated distributed computing; open standards, architectures and equipment; collaborative, opportunistic, advanced communication; and interoperable, realistic integrated modeling and simulation environment (Costanzi et.al., 2020). The need to achieve UMS interoperability will drive engineers and manufacturers to mitigate and solve navigation and communication issues that currently characterizes unmanned maritime systems such as communication delays, delayed live data feeds and data signal processing challenges.
References
Costanzi, R., Fenucci, D., Manzari, V., Micheli, M., Morlando, L., Terracciano, D., . . . Tesei, A.
(2020). Interoperability among unmanned maritime vehicles: Review and first in-field
experimentation. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 7 doi:10.3389/frobt.2020.00091
E.S.A.(n.d.) Unmanned Maritime Systems FS. Retrieved from
Global Unmanned Marine Vehicles Market Overview & Outlook 2019-2024 –
ResearchAndMarkets.com. (2019, July 8). Journal of Engineering, 868. Retrieved from
com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/apps/doc/A592428157/AONE?u=embry&sid=AONE
&xid=e5a72f85
Martin, B., Taraff, D.C., Whitmore, C. T., Deweese, J., Kenney, C., Schmid, J., Deluca, P.
(2019). Advancing Autonomous Systems: An Analysis of Current and Future
Technology for Unmanned Maritime Vehicles. Retrieved from
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