Challenges of mission planning for collaborative maritime autonomy

It is expected that a key part of a future, with ever increasing use of, maritime autonomous systems will require collaborative and integrated working. How approaches to such collaborative working can be developed and tested was part of the Integrated Mission Management System 2019 (IMMS2019) project. The immediate objective was to demonstrate the ability to use a single mission management system to control a fleet of heterogeneous autonomous platforms whereby their collaborative mission could be planned, verified and delivered. In order to challenge the various spatial-temporal-energetic-communication-environmental constraints when operating such a fleet, real-world demonstration trials were carried out in Plymouth sound deployed from the Thales Maritime Autonomy Centre at Turnchapel Wharf. The trials were focussed on ensuring that the control of the mission was secure and robust and that the need for human intervention was minimised. The trials were based on use of a 12m Rigid-Hulled Inflatable Boat (RHIB) that acted as the mobile command centre, a C-CAT3 Autonomous Surface Vessel (ASV), a fixed wing autonomous aircraft, and a pair of EcoSub Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV). The successful completion of the trials provided essential information into how such collaborations can be best executed, alongside invaluable lessons as to how existing platforms need to enhance their interoperability and in particular, robustness of communications and mission plans