Management of Intelligent Navigation for Condition-based Ocean Safe Transit (MIN-COST)

Although unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) can keep people out of harm’s way, the vehicle itself can become a target. On one hand, USVs must remain covert to avoid the vessels of pirates and hostile nations in open waters. Conversely, in peaceful times or regions, USVs can pose a collision risk with non-combatant craft (e.g., shipping vessels). Aboard manned vessels, people can actively make decisions about how exposed or covert the vessel should be. One solution for USVs is for a remote operator to make those decisions. However, the very act of communication to a remote operator may increase the USV’s exposure. Therefore, the USV must make its own decisions autonomously to manage its signature profile. To address these challenges, Charles River Analytics proposes to advance a Phase I prototype of Management of Intelligent Navigation for Condition-based Ocean Safe Transit (MIN-COST). MIN-COST is an autonomy software tool that uses an adaptive behavior-based approach to actively manage USV signatures to either increase or decrease exposure based on the current situation. MIN-COST will enable a USV to operate within the guidance and constraints previously provided by a remote operator while adapting actions based on the current situation.