NOMARS has confirmed that there will never be a human on board the vessel while it is at sea – including during underway replenishment events. By eliminating all constraints and requirements associated with humans, NOMARS has opened up the design space to novel ship configurations and capabilities that could not be considered with crewed vessels.

As there is no crew on board to perform maintenance, NOMARS required new approaches for power generation, propulsion, machinery line-up, and control schemes to ensure continuous functionality throughout a long mission in all weather, temperature, and sea states.

“NOMARS plans to demonstrate a next-generation completely unmanned ship that will enable entirely new concepts of operations,” said Gregory Avicola, program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. “We will enable methods of deploying and maintaining very large fleets of unmanned surface vessels that can serve as partners, across the globe, for the larger crewed combatants of the U.S. Navy.”

In phase 1, services provider Serco was selected to develop a new Design Space Exploration (DSX) toolset that can evaluate spaces with a variety of parameters and outputs millions of ship designs to meet a diverse set of performance objectives and constraints. Serco used its DSX tool to create a set of ship designs ranging from 170-270 metric tons, then refined those into a single ship for the preliminary design review, which the company dubbed Defiant.

In phase 2, Serco will finalise the ship design, build the ship, and work through a series of rigorous testing activities before taking it to sea for a three-month demonstration event. Serco is working with Beier Integrated Systems, Caterpillar, DRS Naval Power Systems, ICE FLOE, Metron, Serco’s Maritime Engineering Operations department, Submergence Group, and Thrustmaster of Texas on the project.

Defiant, a 210-metric ton MUSV-class ship aims to maximise performance, reliability, and maintenance efficiency while still carrying significant payload. The goal is to achieve ultra-reliability objectives by integrating distributed hybrid power generation, podded propulsors, and high-capacity batteries.

A key philosophy of NOMARS is “graceful degradation,” which allows individual equipment to fail over time by having enough system-level redundancy to meet full system requirements at speeds of at least 15 knots after one year at sea.

The major system components of the selected design are modularised, so repairs can be conducted with equipment typically found in yacht-yards worldwide. This maintenance philosophy supports rapid turnaround, allowing the ships to spend a majority of their lifetime at sea performing missions.

Source: https://thedigitalship.com/news/electronics-navigation/item/8011-darpa-s-unmanned-ship-project-moves-to-phase-2

The vessel is also the first Singapore-flagged vessel to receive the Smart (Autonomous) Notation from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

The notations acknowledge the breakthrough performance of the tug, demonstrating autonomous collision avoidance capabilities in trials conducted at Raffles Reserved Anchorage, off Singapore Island, in March 2022.

The tug was fitted with a range of digital technologies from ABB. Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) lead the project on the Maju 510, which is owned and operated by Keppel Smit Towage, a member of Rimorchiatori Mediterranei.

The vessel has already distinguished itself as the world’s first vessel to secure the ABS Remote-Control Navigation Notation, following initial remote operation trials at the Port of Singapore in April 2021. The latest trials verified next level of autonomy, demonstrating automated situational awareness, collision avoidance, and maneuvering control provided by ABB Ability Marine Pilot Vision and Marine Pilot Control.

The 32-metre-long harbor tug demonstrated its ability to autonomously avoid collisions in various scenarios, such as when two other vessels approach simultaneously on colliding paths and when a nearby vessel behaves erratically. The trials were supervised by an onboard tug master.

“I had the pleasure of being aboard Maju 510 during the collision avoidance trials and experiencing how smoothly the tug performed in autonomous mode,” said Romi Kaushal, managing director, Keppel Smit Towage. “What I found particularly impressive was how the digital system identified one or several risks in the tug’s planned path and responded to set the vessel on a new, safer course. The vessel performed as if it was operated by an experienced tug master.”

By allowing the crew to focus on the overall situation rather than on performing specific maneuvers, the ABB Ability Marine Pilot product family enhances safety and efficiency in tug operations, which is particularly important in congested shipping hubs like Singapore, the world’s busiest container port. Furthermore, the systems can be upgraded to enable higher levels of autonomy depending on local regulations and the requirements of the vessel.

“As the systems integrator, Keppel O&M collaborated with ABB on customising the autonomous solutions to enhance the vessel’s operational safety and efficiency. By liberating the crew of time- and energy-consuming tasks and improving accuracy during critical maneuvers, our autonomous solution has proven its ability to increase safety in even the busiest of ports. The autonomous solutions are future-ready to handle the growing demand of tug operations in Singapore port”, said Aziz Merchant, executive director, Keppel Offshore & Marine. “Through digitalisation, enhanced connectivity, and integrating ABB’s technology, we are able to generate high accuracy positioning and maneuvering, with AI engines for marine object recognition and classification.”

In an earlier successful demonstration of ABB’s autonomous technology, the ice-class passenger ferry Suomenlinna II was remotely piloted through the Helsinki harbor. Like Maju 510, Suomenlinna II had been retrofitted with ABB Ability Marine Pilot Vision and ABB Ability Marine Pilot Control.