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ACT Autonomous Surface Vehicle Workshop Report
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Workshop Outcome
Workshop discussions revealed significant advancements and potential applications, but also
recommendations related to a critical need for a common framework to address issues of environment,
supervision and risk in current and future ASV use and operation. Based on input provided by workshop
attendees, Mr. Val Schmidt of the University of New Hampshire (a workshop participant) provided the
following discussion of standardizing terminology to mitigate risk in autonomous marine vessel
operations.
Environment, Autonomy and Supervision: Standardizing Terminology
to Mitigate Risk in Autonomous Marine Vessel Operations
Autonomous surface and underwater vessels provide unique capabilities to scientific
research, the offshore oil and gas industry, fisheries management, hydrographic survey,
habitat mapping and many others. Autonomous vessels can be small, highly portable
and quickly deployed. Or they can be large, with long endurance, and have large
electrical and mechanical payloads. Regardless of the size, operating environment or
mission goals, autonomous surface and underwater vessels must be operated within
tolerable levels of risk for the safety of the vessel, other vessels and human life.
The level of tolerable risk is defined, in part, by the operating organization and by
governmental regulations regarding safe operations of vessels at sea. Military
operations in a war-time environment may tolerate a higher level of risk. Research
organizations may have higher tolerances for risk for the vehicle itself when testing new
algorithms and systems. Oil and gas exploration may have very low tolerances for risk
due to the great danger to human life and the environment involved. In any event,
efforts by organizations to meet a tolerable level of risk result from three primary
considerations: 1) the operational environment, 2) the level of autonomy of the vessel,
and 3) the level of supervision of the vessel during autonomous operations.
When designing systems, purchasing systems for a particular mission type, preparing for
operations of autonomous vessels and conducting those operations at sea, it is helpful
to have in mind standard definitions for levels of autonomy of the vessel, as well as
standard definitions for the level of supervision under which a vessel is to be operated.
Doing so allows a customer to specify a desired level of autonomy in a request for
proposals and allows a manufacturer to build a vessel using a standard level of
autonomy as a design goal. In this way, communications between customers and
manufacturers are made clear. Defining standard levels of autonomy also allows
classification of a vehicle at a particular level such that operators can formalize and even
quantify the risk posed by operations in various environments and under various
circumstances. For example, a malfunction of a critical object avoidance subsystem
might not prevent mission operation, but might place the vehicle in a lower autonomy
level requiring a higher level of supervision to meet the same risk tolerance. When