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ACT Autonomous Surface Vehicle Workshop Report
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To investigate and discuss the feasibility of using unmanned systems, particularly ASVs, to meet
NOAA’s shallow water requirements, the workshop included participants (see Appendix A) from
the following sectors:
•
Private sector vendors and manufacturers of ASVs
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End-users, including resource managers responsible for preservation and stewardship
•
Researchers from academia, state, and federal agencies
The workshop agenda (see Appendix B) began with a series of background presentations that
summarized the role of ACT, NOAA and its partner programs in further developing ASV
technology to meet current and future nearshore survey needs. In addition, brief presentations
from each vendor/manufacturer were delivered to demonstrate the current “state of the art”
of commercially available ASV systems, sensors and onboard processing systems (see Appendix
C for vendor/manufacturer slides).
A series of workshop charge questions were posed to facilitate dialogue across the broad
spectrum of participants. In response, the workshop participants provided input on various
aspects of desired operational, physical and technical characteristics of ASVs, characteristics of
any required shipboard or shore-side equipment, as well as ASV launch and recovery
requirements, desired ASV payload capabilities, ASV operating environment capabilities, ASV
specific systems, and response behaviors for navigational safety, command and control
systems, and vehicle fault tolerances.
The workshop also included a field demonstration of ASV systems by attending
vendors/manufacturers to provide proof of performance in the field and demonstrate real-time
autonomous survey capabilities. Prior to the workshop the vendors/manufacturers were given
a hydrographic challenge to provide a demonstration survey of the approach channel and
associated shoals to Solomons, MD. The red-hashed area shown in Figure 1 designates the ASV
Workshop demonstration survey area. This allowed each vendor an opportunity to
demonstrate how their ASV platform operated in the field including data collection and their
analysis process. During the ASV field demonstration, winds were strong from the southeast
with wave heights running approximately 2 ft. Vehicle demonstrations included a Z-Boat profile
platform from Teledyne Oceansciences, a kayak profile platform developed by Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution, and a catamaran profile platform from SeaRobotics. ASVs
manufactured by other participants, ASV Global, LLC and Sea Machines Robotics, were too large
to bring to the workshop demonstration.