Unmanned Maritime Systems - Department of …Unmanned Maritime Systems can deliver significant cost, safety, knowledge and productivity benefits through enhanced maritime information

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Submission to Defence White Paper 2015

Unmanned Maritime Systems

Executive Summary Australia’s vast maritime domain, 37000 kilometre long coastline and relatively small population impose significant challenges in the protection and management of our marine interests, resources and borders. Aside from military considerations, Australia needs the maritime capability to monitor and respond to seaborne activities such as illegal arrivals, smuggling, illegal fishing activities, threats to commercial shipping and offshore energy infrastructure, and marine environmental hazards. Developing and supporting this capability requires comprehensive hydrographic, oceanographic, meteorological and marine environmental data acquisition systems. Unmanned Maritime Systems (UMS) can leverage the capacity of Defence and Australian Border Force personnel and assets to execute multiple tasks by providing a low cost, persistent and scalable marine surveillance and data acquisition resource, capable of operating over large areas and for extended periods. The benefits of marine robotic technologies are being realised beyond their original defence and scientific purposes. In the same way that Unmanned Airborne Systems (UAS) are transforming defence, industrial and scientific applications through their ability to deliver timely, high quality data at a lower cost and risk than conventional techniques, marine “drones” equipped with mission-specific sensor and communication payloads are demonstrating the same attributes for ocean based tasks. Ocean-going robotic devices such as Wave Gliders and Sea Gliders can be deployed on autonomous or semi – autonomous missions for up to twelve months, continuously gathering and transmitting data from the ocean surface and below, while remaining virtually undetectable. This makes them ideal for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) tasks, as well as other roles such as Rapid Environmental Assessment (REA) for littoral warfare and bathymetric surveying. The marine robotic technology described in this paper is mature and ready for deployment in the suggested applications. The skills and expertise are available in Australia to support the technology and add value to it through enhanced sensor and communication integration, so that Australia can establish a position of leadership in the use of marine robots for defence, environmental, scientific and industrial applications. Robotic ocean drones can be multi-tasked, with a number of different sensor payloads for different applications on the same vehicle, e.g. performing surveillance and marine environmental monitoring on the same mission, further enhancing their cost-effectiveness. Unmanned Maritime Systems can deliver significant cost, safety, knowledge and productivity benefits through enhanced maritime information acquisition and sharing across a wide range of stakeholders, resulting in enhanced protection and understanding of our marine interests, borders, resources and environment.

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Introduction Effective monitoring and protection of Australia’s vast and remote areas of marine interest is logistically difficult, expensive and sometimes dangerous to implement. The deployment of personnel, vessels, aircraft and satellite imagery for maritime applications requires intensive effort, but cannot provide sufficient coverage and resolution to ensure comprehensive and timely data availability for all areas and purposes. Unmanned marine data acquisition systems can help to overcome these limitations by providing mobile, timely and persistent data acquisition from the ocean surface and beneath it. In this way, robotic marine drones can act as sentinels, enabling a more precise and selective approach in the deployment of conventional resources. The major areas of interest in this respect are:

Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) for maritime border protection and surveillance; Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) such as the Great Barrier Reef Maritime Fisheries Protection (Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing)

Each segment brings its own set of challenges and issues, but all share the need for persistent, at-sea monitoring. Figure 1 shows a schematic of the various Unmanned Maritime Systems now being deployed in Australian waters. These technologies have potential applications for the three areas of interest mentioned above.

Figure 1: Unmanned Maritime Systems

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Technology Overview This paper focusses on three examples of robotic marine platforms, namely Wave Gliders, Ocean Gliders and the C-Enduro Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV). These have been selected as examples based on complementary capabilities, technical maturity and applicability to Australian requirements and conditions.

Wave Gliders Wave Gliders were developed in 2007 in Hawaii for marine mammal research purposes, with the objective of having a mobile, persistent device in the middle of the ocean, continuously sending data back to shore. The technology has been commercialised by Liquid Robotics International (USA) and is being adopted for a range of maritime defence, industrial and research applications around the globe. Over 200 Wave Gliders have been delivered internationally, including a number to the Australian DoD for evaluation.

Figure 2: Wave Glider

The Wave Glider’s innovative design enables it to harvest wave energy for forward propulsion, using “paddles” suspended from a floating hull. Solar panels power the communications and instrumentation payloads. These features give the device almost unlimited endurance, as was demonstrated in 2012 when a Wave Glider became the first autonomous robot to cross the Pacific, from California to Queensland. The key features of the Wave Glider are:

Persistence – indefinite, long range mission endurance Operates in all weather conditions, 24/7/365 Unlimited ocean area coverage Global, real time data acquisition Multiple sensor payload capacity, configurable for mission type and application Full or partially autonomous operation Acoustically silent and low profile Low acquisition and operating costs These attributes enable Wave Gliders to act as force multipliers by freeing up conventional assets such as patrol boats, surveillance aircraft or research vessels for active intervention.

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Fig 3: Wave Glider Components

Fig 4: Wave Glider Mode of Operation

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Ocean Gliders Ocean gliders were originally developed in the USA for anti-submarine warfare applications, and were then adopted for oceanographic research applications. As with Wave Gliders, their potential for broader defence and industrial applications is now being recognised, and their underwater sensing, endurance and communication capabilities have been significantly enhanced as a result. Australia has a fleet of approximately 30 Ocean Gliders, primarily deployed for scientific research by CSIRO, and DSTO has been evaluating them.

Fig 5: Seaglider™ Ocean Glider

Rather than an electrically driven propeller, ocean gliders use small changes in buoyancy and wings to achieve forward motion, gliding through the water. The system's pitch and roll are controlled using adjustable ballast (the vehicle battery).

The vehicle moves through the water in a saw-tooth like pattern and surfaces often to determine its position. Navigation is accomplished using a combination of GPS fixes while on the surface and internal sensors that monitor the vehicle heading, depth and attitude during dives. External sensors are constantly scanning the ocean to detect marine environmental parameters and acoustic signals from vessels.

Fig 6: Ocean Glider mode of operation

The outcome is a data collection tool that can be deployed for months at a time rather than the hours or days associated with traditional AUV systems. While its top speed is low, the vehicle's extremely long

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endurance allows it to traverse thousands of kilometres in a single deployment, down to depths of 1000m. The vehicle is small and lightweight, enabling deployment from small vessels or the shore. Like Wave Gliders, these attributes enable persistent data acquisition with excellent temporal and spatial characteristics at a fraction of the cost of traditional collection methods. They are ideally suited for covert oceanographic data acquisition to support submarine and amphibious operations, and can also be used to passively “listen” for vessel signatures. Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV)

Fig 7: C-Enduro ASV

The C-Enduro is designed to combine solar and wind energy to provide sustained, autonomous marine data acquisition in all weather conditions. The solar panels and wind turbine are used to charge batteries that drive electric motors for forward propulsion, as well as sensor and communication payloads. A lightweight diesel generator can be remotely activated to provide additional battery charging if required during periods of reduced solar or wind energy. The C-Enduro’s catamaran hull and multiple power sources can sustain a multiple sensor and communications payload, with mission endurance of up to ninety days. Indicative robotic ocean drone acquisition costs

o Wave Glider: $300k o Sea Glider: $250k o C-Enduro: $ 500k

By comparison, a large marine research vessel costs around $5m to build, whilst a Cape Class Patrol Boat costs around $40m to build.

Applications for Robotic Ocean Drones The following provides an overview of the primary applications for the systems described above, in the context of the Australian maritime area. The applications described are not exhaustive, but serve to illustrate the potential capabilities of the technology in Australian waters.

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Maritime Domain Awareness – Border Security and Surveillance Ocean drones can be used to establish an autonomous, persistent and long range fleet of maritime border sentinels, patrolling and “listening” for suspected illegal immigrant and contraband smuggling vessels. The devices can detect the acoustic signal of a vessel, classify it and transmit a real time alert if positive identification results. It achieves this whilst being virtually impossible to detect due to its low profile and silent operation. The Wave Glider carries cameras which can transmit images in real-time, enabling remote visual verification and evidence recording, whilst infra-red sensors can be used for night time detection. The watch-keeping course of the Wave Gliders can be remotely re-configured based on information updates received. The table below summarises how these capabilities augment existing methods for illegal or unauthorised vessel detection.

Table 1: Advantages and Disadvantages Satellites Vessels Aircraft Wave Gliders

Advantages Large coverage area

Large coverage area Direct tasking

Large coverage area Direct tasking Rapid mobilisation to

site

Large coverage area Direct tasking Direct measurement Unlimited deployment time Autonomous and persistent Low risk Low acquisition and operating costs Difficult to detect “disposable”

Disadvantages “Best guess” from +400kms up

Weather limited Orbital time

gaps

Human risk to deploy and maintain

Weather limited Limited deployment

time Expensive to acquire

and operate Easily detected

Human risk to deploy and maintain

Weather limited Limited deployment

time Expensive to acquire

and operate Easily detected

Slow transit time

Ocean drones can extend and enhance early detection capabilities along Australia’s extensive maritime borders, allowing a more efficient use of expensive manned resources in carrying out interception and patrolling tasks. Figure 8 shows a typical sensor and communication payload configuration for a Wave Glider deployed on maritime surveillance missions.

Figure 8: Sentinel Wave Glider

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Chart 1 shows indicative comparative costs of operating various types of marine surveillance assets.

Chart 1: Comparative operating costs $000’s per hour

Figure 9 shows how robotic ocean drones can be remotely tasked to patrol in suspected transit areas for illegal vessel activities, continuously circling and listening for suspicious vessel activity.

Fig 9: Illegal vessel monitoring scenario

Ocean gliders have similar mission capabilities to Wave Gliders and the C-Enduro for maritime surveillance activities, but are more clandestine as they spend very little time on the surface. They can be

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tasked to travel to a series of waypoints, loiter in one location, park on the seafloor or act as a “virtual” mooring. They can also harvest recorded data from subsea sensor sites, and re-transmit this when they surface, thereby eliminating the need for vessel retrieval. However, unlike Wave Gliders, they cannot record and transmit images.

Fig 10: Data harvesting from subsea sensor nodes

Maritime Protected Areas (MPA’s)

Australia has some of the world’s largest and most significant MPA’s, and has been at the forefront of marine conservation initiatives. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest and most biologically and economically significant of these MPA’s. Management and protection of the Great Barrier Reef is complex, expensive and often controversial due to the number of stakeholders involved. Autonomous marine robotic devices offer a cost efficient method to enhance the long-term management of the reef by substantially increasing the amount of scientific data available to researchers and management authorities. Robotic ocean drone systems can be used to dramatically increase spatial and temporal data acquisition from the entire reef system, due to their persistent and autonomous operational abilities. At present, one Marine Parks vessel has the primary role of compliance monitoring, park management, diving and research operations in an area of 348,000 square kilometers, making it virtually impossible to effectively monitor even a small proportion of the total reserve. However, key indicators of the reef’s health could be continuously monitored by a fleet of robotic drones travelling the length and breadth of the system, on mission deployments lasting up to a year. Examples of the scientific information that could be acquired in this way include: Marine water quality - including a wide range of parameters relevant to dredging impacts,

agricultural run-off, outfall discharges etc.; Meteorological and Oceanographic - this data underpins much of the research into long term reef

health trends; Coral and Seagrass Health - monitoring through imagery captured from downward pointing cameras

on the Wave Gliders;

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Marine Mammal Detection - gliders using acoustic sensors can detect the presence of whales, and alert shipping in area;

Detection of Oil Spills - hydrocarbon and other environmental hazards can be detected along shipping channels

Subsea Noise Monitoring - during marine construction projects to ensure environmental thresholds are not exceeded. Also to detect the presence of illegal fishing activity and dynamite fishing in very remote marine reserves such as the Rowley Shoals off the Kimberley coast.

All of the above could be performed with zero impact on the marine environment, unlike vessel based data sampling methods. Most importantly, the cost efficiency of these technologies would enable a more intensive, sustained and comprehensive approach to monitoring the health of the Great Barrier Reef, and other marine reserves. A further benefit could be the dissemination of the data to other organisations with common requirements, such as the Bureau of Meteorology, Australian Fisheries Management Authority, Australian Maritime Safety Authority and others. Maritime Fisheries Protection Illegal, unreported and unregulated commercial fishing activities are becoming increasingly difficult for countries with large maritime economic zones to monitor and control. As wild fish stocks become depleted, the need for effective policing of these resources becomes critical to ensure their long term sustainability. For example, the tuna fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) region support a fishing industry conservatively worth between USD$4-6 billion a year, in addition to being socially and culturally important to the Pacific Islands. Fisheries managers have struggled to keep up with the rapidly evolving fishing technologies and increasing effort applied by the tuna fishing fleets. The technology and effort employed in the modern tuna fleet has largely outpaced the ability and capacity of fisheries management in most Pacific and Indian Ocean nations to apply, monitor, and enforce regulatory requirements in the fishery. Australia has a leading role to play in the region, both in terms of management of our own fish stocks, as well as providing support in various forms to other nations with limited resources to protect their fish stocks from rampant exploitation. New advances in satellite, computer, and robotics technologies have made it possible to manage fisheries more effectively. Ocean drones offer the opportunity to significantly extend the capability of Pacific and Indian Ocean nations to detect the presence illegal fishing activities in their protected areas, enabling more effective use of vessels and aircraft for identification and interception missions. This capability is based on the sensor, communication and mission endurance features of these systems, as described in previous sections. The introduction of ocean drone technology could become a cost-effective method for Australia to achieve enhanced value from AusAid programmes directed towards Pacific Island nations with vulnerable fishing industries, such as the Solomon Islands. Aside from assisting fisheries management, this approach could also deliver benefits to a range of other stakeholders, such as meteorological agencies and marine science institutions. Australia’s influence in the strategically important Indian Ocean region is being manifested through organisations such as the Indian Ocean Regional Organisation (IORA), which is a comprised of twenty Indian Ocean bounded countries, and is presently chaired by Australia. IORA has six agreed priority areas on which to focus co-operative development efforts, one of which is Fisheries Management. As with the Pacific Ocean, the introduction of ocean drone technology to the Indian Ocean region could significantly enhance monitoring and compliance efforts by IORA member states.




Benefits of using Marine Robotic Technology As described above, robotic ocean drones can deliver significant cost, productivity and safety benefits in terms of: Autonomous, persistent and all weather operation for extended duration Low logistical requirements for deployment, operation and recovery Acoustically silent and low profile for surveillance missions Real-time, global data communication Multi sensor payloads for multiple mission tasks Elimination of human risks due to unmanned operation Low acquisition and operating costs when compared to conventional assets Improved conventional asset and personnel utilisation due to better mission tasking

Conclusion The marine robotic technology described in this paper is proven and ready for deployment in the suggested applications. The skills and expertise are available in Australia to support and add value to the technology so that Australia can be at the forefront of using marine robots for defence, environmental, scientific and industrial applications. These robotic ocean drones can be multi-tasked, with a number of different sensor payloads for different applications on the same vehicle, e.g. performing surveillance and marine environmental monitoring on the same mission, further enhancing their cost-effectiveness. This enabling technology will deliver significant cost, safety, productivity benefits to a wide range of stakeholders involved in the Australian maritime domain, and offer enhanced protection, situational awareness and understanding of our marine borders, resources and environment.

Recommendations for Australia’s 2015 Defence White Paper

Quantify the contribution that unmanned marine systems such as Wave Gliders can deliver in increasing operational capability while reducing cost and risk in ADF and Border Protection mission areas

Outline the operational and diplomatic contribution that persistent marine ISR capability delivered by unmanned maritime systems could make in furthering Australia’s interests in the region, such as enhanced fisheries surveillance for Pacific Island nations.

Examine opportunities to leverage the costs and capabilities of these technologies beyond core Defence requirements, where common information is required, such as bathymetric or oceanographic data.

Investigate the potential for interoperability between Unmanned Airborne Systems and Unmanned Maritime Systems to facilitate enhanced situational awareness and ISR capability from marine and airborne missions with a common task.

For more information, please contact: Fastwave Communications Pty Ltd Nick Daws Director (08) 9381 5353 [email protected]

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Unmanned Maritime Systems - Department of …Unmanned Maritime Systems can deliver significant cost, safety, knowledge and productivity benefits through enhanced maritime information