Successful demonstration of ground-breaking Uncrewed Surface Vessel training and operations

South Devon College’s Marine Academy highlighted its place as a maritime centre of excellence by launching a state-of-the-art autonomous vessel Remote Operations Centre (ROC) and automated USV charging station (DOCK) in a successful live demo to Innovate UK, the project funders.

The ROC+DOCK project business-led consortium, comprising the College, HydroSurv and BMT, developed ground-breaking solutions for the training, testing, control and charging of USV’s using the College’s Mini-MASS Uncrewed Surface Vessel ‘USV Dart’ and BMT ‘REMBRANDT’ maritime simulator. The project demonstration was based at the College’s Marine Academy campus at Premier Marina’s Noss on Dart site.

All the project outputs were successfully demonstrated to Chris Marshall, the Innovate UK Monitoring Officer, by College staff members, alongside technicians from HydroSurv.

Uniquely the college’s BMT REMBRANDT 360-degree vessel simulator suite fulfilled two roles. First, acting as a traditional simulator with a digital twin of the USV Dart and the local river area to enable the training of ROC operators and then uniquely transitioning to a live Remote Operations Centre (ROC), combining live and synthetic data into one immersive ROC.

In simulator mode, ROC operators can be trained in a safe and risk-free environment to operate a digital twin of the USV in a range of selected conditions and scenarios. Missions can be recorded and played back for student feedback and analysis and the behaviour of the digital twin monitored.

In live mission mode, additional vessel simulator control system Command and Control station consoles show real-time data from the USV and docking station, including live streaming video from the USV and the docking station, conning display with heading and speed as well as chart data with overlays of live AIS vessels. The 360-degree monitors display the synthetic environment that the USV is operating in to create a merged synthetic and live ROC.

During the demonstration, the team operated both simulated and real-time missions, with cameras on the dock and USV at control position to provide a first-person view of operations in a variety of weather and sea conditions.

Controlling the USV from the ROC is an immersive experience, positioning the operator as if placed at the helm on the USV. The synthetic environment of the simulator reacts and behaves as the live vessel with the ability to set matching environmental conditions, such as wind, tide, time of day or rain.

This innovative project has highlighted a range of applications over and above what was originally known and envisaged.  USVs can have many applications, depending on their size and location, including surveying, situation monitoring, security operations, defence applications, as well as being used in a search and rescue scenarios.

For this project, the USV Dart’s payload included a range of water sampling sensors that were able to operate and collect data both while on mission and when berthed in the DOCK, receiving charging power for the onboard systems from the battery storage on the DOCK.

For South Devon College Marine Academy this project and future exploitation ensures the College stays at the forefront of the changing needs of commercial maritime training, with new courses in ROC operations for students and professionals to be launched.

Offering a simulated synthetic environment for practice before moving operations to a real live environment ensures the risk profile is decreased – skills can be learned and developed in safety. Students will be able to replay real life incidents and work through different ‘what if’ scenarios before moving on to operating a real USV remotely.

These roles will also be more accessible to more people, including disabled and those who are unable to spend a lot of time away at sea.

^{Chris Marshall, Innovate UK Monitoring Officer, takes to the helm and guides the USV}

Chris Marshall, Innovate UK Monitoring Officer, was thrilled with the demo. He said: “This Innovate UK funded ROC & DOCK project is very promising – it has a quality that isn’t that common in that there are excellent commercial outcomes for a commercial operation alongside successful outcomes for the academic organisation.

“South Devon College has a real opportunity here to take the existing REMBRANDT system to find another line of activity for their simulator in an educational setting for future training.

“Remotely operated vessels are so obviously the future and it’s a great example of how technology can improve things. Technology isn’t taking away jobs – it’s just replacing hard unpleasant physical jobs with something more comfortable which achieves the same end.

“This project has the potential to make marine operational management of vessels less dangerous, is accessible to more people and less anti-social in terms of time spent at sea.”

Sustainability and workforce growth are strong focuses of the College and the introduction of USVs into the maritime environment is a significant move towards decarbonising maritime operations whilst fostering economic growth and boosting mission efficiency.

“This collaboration has been an excellent opportunity to use BMT’s REMBRANDT, a high-fidelity synthetic environment and simulation system, to further enhance a great pairing between Hydrosurv and South Devon College. The project has been a highly successful case study as we grow the use of REMRANDT as a ROC simulation and training tool, bringing multi-faceted capabilities to this facility,” said Jesse Loynes, Maritime Autonomous Systems Consultant at BMT. 

^{From left: Rob Everitt from HydroSurv; David Hull from HydroSurv; Adrian Bevin, Head of Technology at South Devon College; Paul Singer, Qualification Development Coordinator at South Devon College Marine Academy; and Chris Marshall, Innovate UK Monitoring Officer}

Paul Singer, Qualification Development Coordinator at South Devon College Marine Academy, said: “This equipment opens up new training possibilities for all ages and skill levels, highlighting operator skills that will inform future training and course development.

“It also opens up further commercial applications for USV operations, training and testing. Using this enhanced simulator suite, prototype USVs can be tested and evaluated using a digital twin and then compared with the behaviour and characteristics of a live prototype with all testing and data stored for replay as needed for comparative analysis. The true immersive display area also points towards the ability for the ROC operator to more easily manage a swarm fleet of USVs.

“On an operational level the College is very grateful for the assistance from Dart Harbour Navigation Authority for their support and also Premier Marinas and the team at Noss on Dart for their assistance with all the logistics handling the DOCK and USV both on and off the water.”