Cooperative unmanned vehicle systems for harbour defence

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The goal of this project is to develop improved technology for harbour defence to meet modern threats, including the threat of terrorism, a current goal of the Canadian Armed Forces.  We address the problem of harbour defence with surveillance.  The assumption is that with adequate intelligent surveillance, attacks can be detected early enough to allow time for mitigating action.  To provide adequate surveillance coverage for a large harbour requires multiple mobile sensor platforms mounted on unmanned surface vehicles (USV, autonomous boats that operate on the surface of the water).  We address issues of surveillance coverage planning, collective and individual responses of USVs to the situations encountered with particular attention paid to guarantees of safety during autonomous operation, and the intelligent processing of sensor data to detect unusual, possibly threatening activity.  A central feature of the project is a harbour trial that will be conducted in Esquimalt harbour, with the help of our partner, Meggitt Defence Systems Canada.  The trial will demonstrate surveillance coverage in a working harbour with a fleet of USVs that responds and adapts to activity in the harbour.