Autonomous
323
Part B | 13
13. Autonomous Sea Surface Vehicles
Stefano Brizzolara, Robert A. Brizzolara
Capitalizing on the experience and technology developments gained with underwater autonomous
vehicles, the current research frontier in the field
of autonomous marine vehicles has moved from
under water to the sea surface, i. e., autonomous
sea surface vehicles. Current and future perspectives of these types of autonomous vehicles are
given in Sect. 13.1, with particular attention paid
to US navy current interests. These were initiated
a decade ago and still actively drive developments
in this sector. The ability to design craft specialized
for particular tasks to reach the best performance
at sea, going beyond size and operational/safety
limitations currently imposed by manned ships,
offers unique opportunities to the naval architect.
In this respect, the basic naval architecture principles that drive the selection of a type of hull with
respect to operational requirements are given in
the Sect. 13.3. The selection of the type of hull is
a preliminary essential activity for the successful
design or acquisition of an autonomous surface
13.1 Platforms ............................................ 324
13.2 Autonomous Maneuvering
and Navigation.................................... 326
13.3 Naval Architecture of AUSV Design......... 327
13.3.1 Froude Number
and Hull Typologies ................... 327
13.4 Optimized Class of Autonomous
Unmanned Surface Vehicles.................. 330
13.5 Conclusions ......................................... 337
References................................................... 339
craft. Finally, as a practical example, Sect. 13.4
summarizes the main results of extensive research
done at the MIT-iShip lab to develop a new class
of autonomous unmanned surface vehicles, based
on a highly specialized and optimized design of
an unconventional SWATH (small waterplane area
twin hull) hull, able to achieve superior performance and operational capabilities in real sea
state conditions.
Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) provide significant
performance advantages relative to their counterparts
in air and undersea domains. USVs have the ability to
carry large, heavy payloads (or fuel) and maintain them
on-station for long periods of time, for a platform of
a given size and cost. Displacement and planing hulls
typically used for USVs can be optimized for high payload fraction. Air-breathing propulsion means that the
platform can be designed to have a long range and endurance or high speed. USVs can be designed to be
quite stealthy or they can be designed for high speed.
By virtue of being located on the sea surface, USVs are
able to communicate with air and undersea platforms.
Finally, the USV platform can and should be of low
complexity and low cost.
USV development is still in its early stages, despite the fact that the use of unmanned boats in military
operations is far from new. Some of the first uses of
unmanned boats took place in 1946 for the collection of water samples following operation crossroads
nuclear weapon tests [13.1] and subsequently in Vietnam for mine sweeping operations. Despite these early
activities, concerted USV development did not begin
until the late 1990s. This is typical of the development timelines for many complex technologies, which
can be several decades long. For example, in the case
of naval air power, it was almost four decades between the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903 and the
first decisive uses of naval air power in World War
II, with key milestones in between such as the first
airplane takeoff from a warship in 1910 and the first
aircraft carrier (early 1920s) [13.2, 3]. The first decisive military uses of radar occurred in World War II,
for example in the Battle of Britain in 1940, following the seminal work on electromagnetic waves by
Maxwell, Hertz, and others that occurred in the late
1800s [13.4]. Although very different to naval aviation
and radar, the full capability of USVs will be enabled
by solutions to technical issues that have a substantial
degree of difficulty (for example, sensors, guidance and
navigation, artificial intelligence, computer processing,
and reduced size and weight of payloads of operational interest); these issues will still require time to be
solved.
323
Part B | 13
13. Autonomous Sea Surface Vehicles
Stefano Brizzolara, Robert A. Brizzolara
Capitalizing on the experience and technology developments gained with underwater autonomous
vehicles, the current research frontier in the field
of autonomous marine vehicles has moved from
under water to the sea surface, i. e., autonomous
sea surface vehicles. Current and future perspectives of these types of autonomous vehicles are
given in Sect. 13.1, with particular attention paid
to US navy current interests. These were initiated
a decade ago and still actively drive developments
in this sector. The ability to design craft specialized
for particular tasks to reach the best performance
at sea, going beyond size and operational/safety
limitations currently imposed by manned ships,
offers unique opportunities to the naval architect.
In this respect, the basic naval architecture principles that drive the selection of a type of hull with
respect to operational requirements are given in
the Sect. 13.3. The selection of the type of hull is
a preliminary essential activity for the successful
design or acquisition of an autonomous surface
13.1 Platforms ............................................ 324
13.2 Autonomous Maneuvering
and Navigation.................................... 326
13.3 Naval Architecture of AUSV Design......... 327
13.3.1 Froude Number
and Hull Typologies ................... 327
13.4 Optimized Class of Autonomous
Unmanned Surface Vehicles.................. 330
13.5 Conclusions ......................................... 337
References................................................... 339
craft. Finally, as a practical example, Sect. 13.4
summarizes the main results of extensive research
done at the MIT-iShip lab to develop a new class
of autonomous unmanned surface vehicles, based
on a highly specialized and optimized design of
an unconventional SWATH (small waterplane area
twin hull) hull, able to achieve superior performance and operational capabilities in real sea
state conditions.
Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) provide significant
performance advantages relative to their counterparts
in air and undersea domains. USVs have the ability to
carry large, heavy payloads (or fuel) and maintain them
on-station for long periods of time, for a platform of
a given size and cost. Displacement and planing hulls
typically used for USVs can be optimized for high payload fraction. Air-breathing propulsion means that the
platform can be designed to have a long range and endurance or high speed. USVs can be designed to be
quite stealthy or they can be designed for high speed.
By virtue of being located on the sea surface, USVs are
able to communicate with air and undersea platforms.
Finally, the USV platform can and should be of low
complexity and low cost.
USV development is still in its early stages, despite the fact that the use of unmanned boats in military
operations is far from new. Some of the first uses of
unmanned boats took place in 1946 for the collection of water samples following operation crossroads
nuclear weapon tests [13.1] and subsequently in Vietnam for mine sweeping operations. Despite these early
activities, concerted USV development did not begin
until the late 1990s. This is typical of the development timelines for many complex technologies, which
can be several decades long. For example, in the case
of naval air power, it was almost four decades between the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903 and the
first decisive uses of naval air power in World War
II, with key milestones in between such as the first
airplane takeoff from a warship in 1910 and the first
aircraft carrier (early 1920s) [13.2, 3]. The first decisive military uses of radar occurred in World War II,
for example in the Battle of Britain in 1940, following the seminal work on electromagnetic waves by
Maxwell, Hertz, and others that occurred in the late
1800s [13.4]. Although very different to naval aviation
and radar, the full capability of USVs will be enabled
by solutions to technical issues that have a substantial
degree of difficulty (for example, sensors, guidance and
navigation, artificial intelligence, computer processing,
and reduced size and weight of payloads of operational interest); these issues will still require time to be
solved.