A collaboration of expertise Polaris are a specialist technical
consultancy who provide research
and analysis, decision support,
cost engineering and project
support services in multiple
domains primarily in the Defence
sector.
Polaris is an SME with ~ 25
employees and offices in
Waterlooville and Bristol.
Project 1: A risk-based meta-heuristic model for real time route
optimisation in autonomous surface vehicles (ASV)
• background - existing
inefficient routing
algorithms
• our approach uses Ant
Colony Optimisation to
iterate through the
mapped environment
• modelled in MatLab –
outputs an optimal route
accounting for risk as
well as distance for the
given environment
• also capable of dynamic
obstacle avoidance
Success to date
• our approach was tested using the REMBRANDT shipping simulator at BMT Argoss
• simulation of a route exiting Portsmouth Harbour and transiting through the Solent and
simulation of 2 dynamic obstacles, successfully avoided
• demonstration to TRL 3
What next? 3 Real world – sea trials
• test on C-Worker5 provided by
ASV Ltd
1 Algorithm enhancement
• agent based approach
• vessel dynamics
• layered environment
• cost through time
2 Further simulation
• multiple dynamic unpredictable
obstacles
• additional mission areas
• differing environments – such as
weather
Achieve TRL6
“Technology model or prototype
demonstration in a relevant
environment”
Project 2: Research and development into maritime autonomous
navigation and mission effectiveness in GPS limited environments
• Positioning: developed a positioning method for GPS limited environments that uses the vessels sensors
and prior knowledge of the area
• Data fusion of sensor inputs to come to an overall calculated position and statement of confidence
Success to date • our approach was tested using the REMBRANDT shipping simulator at
BMT Argoss
• algorithm tested in a variety of simulated conditions across 40 min @ 5
knot voyages
What next?
Increasing Levels of Autonomy
1. Add more sensors (e.g. LIDAR) Greater positional accuracy within harbours and coastal regions
2. Test on C-Worker5 Accurate performance in a variety of real world conditions
3. Mission Decision Module Assesses whether a mission can be safely navigated given available sensors, environment and mission route