VIRGINIA science and technology company Leidos, a top Pentagon contractor, has completed first self-guided voyage of a 42-foot work boat for 35 nautical miles along a stretch of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway around Gulfport, Mississippi.
The prototype, part of the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) programme, made the voyage controlled only by computer, reported London's Digital Ship.
The project had previously reported 42 successful days of at-sea demonstration with the technology, as well as 26,000 simulation runs, but this was the first time that a fully self-guided voyage had been completed, said the report.
The maritime autonomy system was installed to test sensor, manoeuvring and mission functions. With a chart in its memory as well as commercial-off-the-shelf radars, the vessel avoided obstacles, buoys, land, shoals and other vessels without human intervention, the company said.
While continuing tests on software and sensors on the work boat, the company is building the more substantial Sea Hunter, the first ACTUV prototype vessel in Clackamas, Oregon, and will begin testing on the Columbia River later in the year.
ACTUV aims to develop an independently deployed, unmanned naval vessel that would operate under sparse remote supervisory control and safely follow international the COLREGS (collision regulations also known as NAVRULES).
WORLD SHIPPING
02 February 2015 - 22:54
US Defence test boat completes 35-knot unmanned voyage in busy waters
VIRGINIA science and technology company Leidos, a top Pentagon contractor, has completed first self-guided voyage of a 42-foot work boat for 35 nautical miles along a stretch of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway around Gulfport, Mississippi.
WORLD SHIPPING
02 February 2015 - 22:54
US Defence test boat completes 35-knot unmanned voyage in busy waters
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