ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The U.S. Navy on Tuesday welcomed its third Overlord unmanned surface vessel into the fleet, as the service prepares to ramp up its USV experimentation at sea and ashore.

Mariner, built by Gulf Craft in Louisiana and managed by prime contractor Leidos, was delivered in March and christened Aug. 23 at the U.S. Naval Academy. It is already outfitted with a government-furnished command-and-control system, a virtualized Aegis Combat System, an autonomous navigation system and more. After a few more upgrades and testing, it will head out to California and begin operations in fiscal 2023, the Navy’s program executive officer for unmanned and small combatants, Rear Adm. Casey Moton, told reporters during a tour here.

Mariner’s sister ships, Nomad and Ranger, recently participated in the Rim of the Pacific naval exercise in Hawaii. The addition of Mariner to the USV fleet will add both volume and new capabilities as the Navy tries to learn more about operating unmanned craft and decide what the future hybrid manned-unmanned fleet ought to look like, Moton said.

The Navy’s test plan includes both land-based and at-sea testing, he said. During land-based testing, the Navy can more easily install new items, can run tests for longer durations and in more controlled conditions, and can update systems more easily as test results highlight needed fixes.

At sea, though, he said “you’re in the dynamic marine environment, with the ship moving around, and in a corrosion environment, and watch standers having to move around … dynamic loads and all kinds of things. There is absolutely a place for both.”

The Navy will ultimately have seven USVs to experiment with at sea: Nomad, Ranger, Mariner and fellow Overlord USV Vanguard, which is under construction at Austal USA with prime contractor L3Harris; as well as Medium USV prototypes Sea Hunter and Sea Hawk, which also participated in RIMPAC, and a third medium-size ship on contract with L3Harris.

Moton argued it’s important to have so many at-sea test platforms because of the scale of testing the Navy is trying to do, working through different vendors’ systems for perception, autonomy, machinery control and more, as well as testing out a number of potential payloads.

A new feature built into Mariner will also allow for some unique concept of operations testing at sea: the virtualized Aegis Combat System will actually allow Mariner to control another USV, Moton said.

“Now we can take two of our USVs and go out and do multi-vessel ops and control and not necessarily have to take a [destroyer] off of actual fleet operations to go do that. It gives us that ability to just get there that much more quickly,” he said.

A program official added during the tour that the USV Division 1 staff in California, who could in the future operate USVs from an ashore unmanned operations center or from aboard a Navy ship such as a destroyer, could actually use Mariner as a training vessel, embarking it as they would a destroyer and controlling another USV manually from Mariner’s combat system. USV Division 1 officials were able to collaborate with destroyers during RIMPAC, though access to such warships for experimentation is far from the norm because of busy training and deployment schedules. That’s why officials hope Mariner could serve as something of a training ship for the division staff as they learn how to employ a USV from a ship at sea.

As for the land-based testing, Moton said the Navy is moving ahead with industry-led testing of engines for unmanned vessels even as its official USV land-based engineering site is under construction at Naval Surface Warfare Center Philadelphia. L3Harris has an MUSV plant in Camden, N.J., that would be transitioned to the Navy facility just across the river if the service decides to move ahead with those types of USVs. The Navy is currently committed to a large robotic-ship program (LUSV) and is still weighing the value of medium-size ships against the capabilities that small drones in large numbers could bring.

On LUSV, a variety of potential engines are being tested ashore by their various vendors — which Moton said is a good thing for technology development and for keeping the program competitive — and that work will also be moved to Philly when the new test center is ready.

Despite all the testing taking place, Navy officials during the tour said commercial industry has done quite a bit of work already to mature autonomy systems on ships. In the case of Mariner’s parent design, autonomy features were optimized for the fast supply vessel to bring people and materials to oil rigs with a crew of just six on the 194-foot boat.

Because of the pre-existing emphasis on autonomy and redundancy to support a small crew, the ship was already designed with five water jets, each with their own engine and drive train and an ability to switch between them if one experienced a problem. The Cummins engines were built with an option that avoids the need for periodic oil changes — something that would otherwise prevent USVs from operating months at a time without a crew — using a system that automatically burns off the old lube oil and adds in new lube oil.

The Navy went further and added in a whole web of cables that connect sensors to ship systems and enable the machinery control system to autonomously monitor hull, mechanical and electrical systems and shift between redundant systems when needed.

Brian Fitzpatrick, the principal assistant program manager for USVs at the unmanned maritime systems program office within PEO USC, said the Navy had collected 400 terabytes of data from Nomad, Ranger, Sea Hunter and Sea Hawk at RIMPAC and that his office would spend the coming months parsing through that data to understand both system performance at sea and to refine what data they wanted to continue collecting in the future.

Fitzpatrick said the Navy was looking forward to the delivery of its final OUSV prototype, Vanguard, which takes Mariner’s parent design and scales it up to a 205-foot design. Because the vessel is larger, it can hold more fuel and therefore gain even greater range, and it can haul even heavier payloads. Fitzpatrick said Vanguard would push the limits of what a vessel of this size class could do for the Navy.

The program-of-record LUSV’s design hasn’t been finalized yet but will certainly be larger than Mariner and even Vanguard. Fitzpatrick and Moton said all the testing at sea and ashore will apply equally to a future LUSV and a potential MUSV from an engineering perspective. From a concept of employment perspective, the Navy knows just what it wants from LUSV — to serve as an adjunct missile-launcher — but testing will help inform whether hauling around sensors and electronic warfare packages on a vessel of this size is worth the price tag.

“I think it’s completely healthy for the top levels of the Navy to be having that question about what a hybrid fleet, manned-unmanned, looks like. And we are essentially providing the data and the feedback on [concepts of operations] that’s supporting that discussion,” Moton said.

Source: https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2022/08/24/navy-christens-third-overlord-robot-ship-with-more-on-tap/

The US government’s DARPA agency is moving to phase 2 of its No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) programme, a project to build, test and demonstrate an unmanned surface vessel (MUSV) that can go to sea and perform missions without any humans present on board.

The Agency worked with Serco Inc on phase 1 of the project to create a new Design Space Exploration (DSX) toolset that can evaluate spaces with a variety of parameters and output millions of ship designs to meet performance objectives and constraints.

That tool created a set of ship designs ranging from 170-270 metric tons, refined into a single ship for the preliminary design review, which the company dubbed Defiant. In phase 2, Serco will finalise this ship design, build the ship, and work through a series of testing activities before taking it to sea for a three-month demonstration event.

The fundamental DARPA requirement for the NOMARS programme is that there will never be a human on board the vessel while it is at sea, including during underway replenishment (UNREP) events.

The design will incorporate a ‘graceful degradation’ philosophy for maintenance that 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.

Source: https://smartmaritimenetwork.com/2022/08/23/darpa-moves-to-phase-2-of-unmanned-ship-programme/

Western Baltic Engineering has developed a novel electric pusher tug specifically suited to shallow waterways, like those found in Lithuania – and, increasingly, all over Europe.

WBE’s new “Electric Eel” is designed to run on battery power on a stretch of inland waterway betweek Klaipeda and Kaunas, a distance of about 240 nautical miles. The Lithuanian Inland Waterways Authority commissioned the design for a program to transition truck cargo onto inland barges, thereby reducing emissions. According to WBE head of sales and marketing Egl? Mikalauskien?, this single pusher tug could help eliminate 10,000 truck trips a year.

To meet the requirements of Lithuania’s inland waterway network, the vessel has to have a draft of less than four feet – a genuine challenge for a 195 dwt tug capable of moving a large cargo barge. Extensive CFD analysis helped refine the hull shape to achieve the form factor and efficiency required for the project. As a side benefit, the tug’s small size and light weight mean that it can be built at many regional shipyards.

The electric vessel will run on three separate battery banks, two in twenty-foot containers on deck and one below in a hold. The containerized batteries can be lifted off and exchanged, while the one belowdecks is permanent and can be charged when alongside the quay. Together they store enough power to move the tug and its tow for a distance of 160 nm at a service speed of 12 knots (downriver).

The design is currently awaiting AIP from Bureau Veritas, and once approved, the first model will be built for the Lithuanian Inland Waterways Authority next year.

“We believe our electric pusher is a first mover in the market and can play a critical role in the drive to transform the IWT of Lithuania as well as the Danube and Rhine,” said Mikalauskien? in a statement.

Though Europe’s inland transport sector is receiving plenty of news coverage because of an ongoing drought, inland waterways account for a very small share of the EU’s freight – just six percent, compared with the 75 percent carried by trucking. The EU would like to boost inland waterway and shortsea shipping’s share by 50 percent by midcentury in order to reduce emissions.

Source: https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/shallow-draft-electric-pushboat-could-cut-co2-on-eu-s-inland-waterways

GasLog has agreed a deal to implement BASSnet’s crew management software in a fully Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) set-up for its office and fleet of 36 vessels, the companies report.

The deal covers BASSnet HR Manager (Crewing), Work & Rest Hours and Training & Drills modules, the BASSnet Crew Portal ‘self-service’ mobile app, and integration with travel companies for travel arrangements.

“BASSnet’s end-to-end process flow is of high value for holistic crew management,” said Konstantinos Karathanos, Chief Operating Officer at GasLog.

“As BASSnet can be used across multiple devices from desktop to tablets to mobile, it provides a seamless workflow for all users, from ship staff to office personnel, seafarers and for travel logistics. BASSnet SaaS, securely hosted in the Microsoft Azure environment, allows users access anytime and anywhere.”

“The self-service BASSnet Crew Portal mobile app also brings great benefits. We can now directly involve crew, even when they’re on the move, for effective management of the crewing processes.”

The Crew Portal app will allow crew to view and maintain data on personal information, training activities, sailing schedules, travel arrangements, costs, claims, licence and certificate expiry, and check compliance information, giving them greater control over their work processes.

“BASSnet HR Manager will certainly bring GasLog higher efficiency and productivity, by streamlining our crew management processes,” said Jose Milhazes, Business Process and Innovation Manager at GasLog.

Source: https://smartmaritimenetwork.com/2022/08/23/gaslog-to-roll-out-bassnet-for-crew-management/

ABB said Monday its digital technologies have enabled the harbor tug Maju 510 to become the first vessel in the world to receive Autonomous and Remote-Control Navigation Notation from ABS classification society, and first Singapore-flagged vessel to receive the Smart (Autonomous) Notation from 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, ABB said.

Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) is the project lead for the autonomous solutions 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,” ABB said.

The 32-meter-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.”

• Maju 510 Tug: Singapore’s First Autonomous Vessel Project Complete

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, ABB said.

“As the systems integrator, Keppel O&M collaborated with ABB on customizing 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 digitalization, 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.”

“We are proud to build on our collaboration with Keppel Offshore & Marine and move yet another step closer to making autonomous tugboat operations a reality,” said Juha Koskela, Division President, ABB Marine & Ports. “Our autonomous solutions are designed to support the crew in performing their duties as safely and efficiently as possible. The same technology can be applied to a variety of vessel types including wind turbine installation vessels, cruise ships and ferries.”

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.

“Most, if not all vessels could benefit from a higher level of automation for improved safety, efficiency and sustainability of operations. Optimized maneuvering helps to prevent accidents, enhance productivity and reduce fuel consumption and emissions,” ABB said.

Source: https://www.marinelink.com/news/abb-keppel-om-verify-nextlevel-harbor-tug-498900