The project builds on the research from the previously NFR-funded project "Autonomous Underwater Fleets", but takes an important step further: the goal is to develop methods that enable autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) to cooperate more robustly and efficiently in demanding maritime operations.
One of the most critical application areas is naval mine countermeasure operations (NMCM). Such operations involve significant risk for personnel when carried out manually. By developing autonomous and cooperating robotic vessels, this risk can be dramatically reduced, while the quality and efficiency of the operations increase.
In the project, we have developed new control and cooperation methods that allow autonomous vessels to:
- work together even with limited and delayed communication, such as when using acoustic modems underwater,
- share tasks and maintain formation in a safe and energy-efficient way,
- tow and control underwater sensors or payloads in a stable and precise manner, which is highly relevant for minesweeping,
- adapt to uncertain conditions, such as unknown ocean currents or environmental disturbances.
An important result of the project is the development of robust methods for formation control and coordinated motion, even when communication is delayed or packets are lost - a well-known challenge in underwater environments. The project has also developed new control methods for towed systems, where a surface vessel tows a sensor unit. This is directly relevant for new concepts in autonomous minesweeping.
The work has been closely connected to the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), both through shared technical assessments and through testing and evaluation of realistic towing configurations. This collaboration has provided unique insight into operational needs and enabled the development of solutions that are practically applicable in the defence sector.
Through a combination of advanced theory, simulations, and experimental tests, the project has contributed new knowledge on autonomous cooperative control for heterogeneous marine fleets. The results lay the foundation for safer, more efficient, and more autonomous NMCM operations in the future.
The project has delivered new cooperation and control algorithms that can make naval mine countermeasure (NMCM) operations both safer and more efficient. Through the development of methods for robust multi-agent coordination, formation control, and towing-based sensing, the project has produced concrete building blocks for future autonomous NMCM systems.
A key scientific outcome is a set of distributed control algorithms that allow heterogeneous fleets of AUVs and ASVs to cooperate even when communication is limited, delayed, or unreliable, as is typical for acoustic links underwater. These algorithms enable shared decision-making, coordinated path following, and safe formation keeping, allowing multiple vehicles to work together as a unified team rather than as independent units.
The project has also generated new control strategies for towing and manipulating unactuated payloads, which is directly relevant for autonomous minesweeping. These results show how an autonomous surface vessel can stably tow a sensor package, compensate for ocean currents, and follow a planned path with high precision. This provides a technological basis for replacing dangerous manned minesweeping operations with autonomous solutions.
The project has strengthened the strategic collaboration between NTNU and FFI, particularly in embodied artificial intelligence, cooperative marine robotics, and autonomous maritime defence systems. Through joint discussions, model analysis, and evaluation of realistic towing configurations, the project has ensured that the developed methods address actual operational needs.
Overall, the outcomes of the project contribute to increased safety, reduced operational risk, and improved effectiveness in NMCM operations. The scientific advances also offer broader impact for autonomous marine operations in search and rescue, environmental monitoring, offshore inspection, and other domains where robust cooperation between multiple autonomous vessels is required.
The ongoing 'Autonomous Underwater Fleets' project, funded by the Norwegian Research Council, has been dealing with the generic problem of improving the capabilities of homogeneous autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in cooperating. More specifically, it has been focusing on making such cooperation schemes take into account dynamically how much the AUVs will be able to communicate while performing their mission.
This project will be here extended in two ways: a) the research results will be generalized to heterogeneous networks, i.e., consider heterogeneous networks composed by different types of AUVs and of autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) working together, plus b) focus on results that specifically address the needs of the defence sector. More precisely, the research will focus on the particular problem of executing naval mine counter measurement (NMCM) operations autonomously. Diminishing the risks of human injuries while performing NMCM tasks is a main challenge of the defence sector. This means that the research will revolve around two challenges: making NMCM autonomous (and thus autonomous detection, mapping, capture and/or detonation of mines), plus exploiting the benefits that may come from the heterogeneity in the capabilities of the vehicles in performing such detection, mapping, capture and/or detonation of mines. Importantly, such operations are envisioned to be performed by fleets of collaborating vehicles. This adds thus the complexifying factor of having to tasks allocation and partitioning problems (respectively, who does what and who goes where) in a distributed, autonomous fashion.
Closely integrated with the development of theories and algorithms we will also test, validate and demonstrate the potential of the devised cooperation algorithms in the Trondheim fjord using the various vessels and demoing capabilities available at NTNU, as well as at FFI in Horten.
