Friday, November 21, 2014
Leidos completes testing of unmanned war ship system
Engineering firm Leidos announced it has completed a total of 42 days of at-sea demonstrations of a prototype maritime autonomy system designed to control all of the mission functions of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV).
Using a 32-foot workboat as a surrogate, Leidos installed autonomy software and sensors to mimic the configuration intended for an eventual full-size ACTUV prototype.
Leidos said it evaluated the prototype ACTUV autonomy system for IMO collision regulations compliance, including both simulation and at-sea testing, completing around 26,000 simulation runs.
During 42 days of at-sea testing that included 101 individual scenarios, the company said its autonomy system directed course and speed changes of the surrogate vessel to stay safely outside a 1-kilometer standoff distance from the interfering vessel.
The construction of Sea Hunter, the first ACTUV vessel, continues at Christensen Shipyard in Clackamas, Oregon, according to Leidos. Sea Hunter is scheduled to launch in late summer 2015 and begin testing in the Columbia River shortly after that.
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