Distributed coverage optimisation for a fleet of unmanned maritime systems

Authors

  • Geert De Cubber Royal Military Academy http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7772-0258
  • Rihab Lahouli Royal Military Academy
  • Daniela Doroftei Royal Military Academy
  • Rob Haelterman Royal Military Academy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21014/acta_imeko.v10i3.1031

Abstract

Unmanned maritime systems (UMS) can provide important benefits for maritime law enforcement agencies for tasks such as area surveillance and patrolling, especially when they are able to work together as one coordinated system. In this context, this paper proposes a methodology that optimises the coverage of a fleet of UMS, thereby maximising the opportunities for identifying threats. Unlike traditional approaches to maritime coverage optimisation, which are also used, for example, in search and rescue operations when searching for victims at sea, this approach takes into consideration the limited seaworthiness of small UMS, compared with traditional large ships, by incorporating the danger level into the design of the optimiser.

Author Biographies

Geert De Cubber, Royal Military Academy

Geert De Cubber is the team leader of the Robotics & Autonomous Systems unit of the department of Mechanics of the Belgian Royal Military Academy. He is also a senior researcher at this institute with a research focus on developing robotic solutions for solving security challenges like crisis management, the fight against crime and terrorism and border security.

Rihab Lahouli, Royal Military Academy

Rihab Lahouli is a senior researcher at the department of Mathematics of the Belgian Royal Military Academy. Her research focuses on the fields of connected objects, internet-of-things (IoT), location tracking, situational awareness and data management.

Daniela Doroftei, Royal Military Academy

Daniela Doroftei is a senior researcher at the Robotics & Autonomous Systems unit of the department of Mechanics of the Belgian Royal Military Academy. Her research focuses on the tight integration and seemless interfacing between humans and robots in security and defence applications. Within the Robotics & Autonomous Systems unit, she is therefore the expert on research questions related to human factors, requirements engineering, human-robot shared control methodologies and operational quantitative validation methods. 

Rob Haelterman, Royal Military Academy

Rob Haelterman is a Military Professor at the department of Mathematics of the Belgian Royal Military Academy. He is also the head of the Extended Reality Laboratory.

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Published

2021-09-30

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 3 (2021)

Section

Research Papers

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