1 - STORMY: Storm-Aware USV Operations using Multi-Objective Autonomy

STORMY (Storm-Aware USV Operations using Multi-Objective Autonomy) will allow a USV to weigh global mission objectives such as arrivals at a time-prioritized sequence of locations against damage to the vessel due to high seas or collision with other vessels during long-duration missions. The proposed WAVES technology addresses these issues with a two-tiered approach to vehicle motion which considers global route planning and plan execution as two distinct processes. Although missions proceed in the context of the global plan using the environmental forecast, local wind, current and sea state conditions are monitored using tracking filters and a Parametric Bayesian Estimator that attempts to estimate where parameters of the current environmental conditions are in relation to the forecast and adjusts the forecast as necessary. The environmental parameters estimated with the Bayesian Estimator are kept in several simple classes (e.g. “high sea states delayed 3 hours”) since more sophisticated weather forecasting is not possible onboard the USV in real-time. This approach allows WAVES to trade off forecast-based global route plans designed to meet overall mission objectives with the maneuvering needed to meet unexpected real-time local conditions due to forecasting error.