The US Navy is creating a system for its unmanned robotic warships to be able to communicate like human sailors, allowing the ship to safely navigate through waterways. The goal of his technology is to allows human bridge crews to talk with robot ships using normal speech over the worldwide radio system used for ship-to-ship communication.
Specifically, the Navy ships will be able to understand secure radio transmissions, include their meaning into its world model, develop appropriate maneuvering plans and respond via voice on the radio.
These ships have as a priority to comply with the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS), which includes strict instructions on how ships acknowledge each other and pass one another while sailing. Currently, to do that, human crew is using the marine VHF radio, but robotic ships are unable to use the technology.
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The Navy wants to come up with a solution that will enable a USV to act much like a human mariner. To do so, the USV should understand secure Bridge-to-Bridge radio transmissions, add their meaning into its world model, develop appropriate maneuvering plans, and respond via voice on the Bridge-to-Bridge radio, as said above.
However, in order for these ships to have these abilities, the US Navy has laid out a three phase plan.
During the first phase the ships will have technology to recognize common call-ups such as ‘Sea Hunter, this is Sun Princess; propose a port-to-port passage.’
In this part, integration with an actual VHF radio is not required, but it should include a plan to extend the product in Phase II and beyond, as well as a proposed approach to Phase II testing.
Phase I will include the initial design specifications and capabilities description to create a prototype solution in Phase II. Then it will include an actual VHF radio, extend functionality to mariners who speak English as a second language, and generate English replies to proposed maneuvers.
During phase two, the group will establish a working prototype of the system they can test and evaluate, and they expect to have it finalized three months before the end of this phase.
The final phase will include a final end-to-end system that enables the ship to perform like a human mariner, particularly in its use of the VHF Bridge-to-Bridge radio for negotiating maneuvers in situations involving three or more vessels.
The civilian market for unmanned vessels appears poised for take-off, and such vessels will need to be able to function even when satellite links to remote oversight facilities ashore are inoperative
The US Department of Defense explained.
It also added that this technology can be used on minimally manned vessels and pleasure craft as an aid to a human operator.
