Unmanned vehicles have become a part of everyday life, not only in the air, but also at sea. In the case of sea, until now this usually meant small platforms operating near shores, usually for surveying or research purposes. However, experiments with larger cargo vessels, designed to operate on the high seas are already being carried out. In this context, there are questions about the threats that this solution may pose for other sea users, as well as the safety of the unmanned vehicle itself and the cargo or equipment on board. The problems can be considered in the context of system reliability as well as the resilience to interference or other intentional actions directed against these objects—for example, of a criminal nature. The paper describes the dangers that arise from the specificity of systems that can be used to solve navigational problems, as well as the analysis of the first experiences of the authors arising from the transit of an unmanned surface vessel (USV) from the United Kingdom to Belgium and back, crossing the busiest world shipping route—the English Channel.

The methods of data collection, processing, and assessment of the quality of the results of a survey conducted at the Southern Ionian Sea off the Messinian Peninsula, Greece are presented. Data were collected by the GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Alumni Team, competing in the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, during the Final Round of the competition. Data acquisition was conducted by the means of unmanned vehicles only. The mapping system was composed of a single deep water AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle), equipped with a high-resolution synthetic aperture sonar HISAS 1032 and multibeam echosounder EM 2040, partnered with a USV (Unmanned Surface Vessel). The USV provided positioning data as well as mapping the seafloor from the surface, using a hull-mounted multibeam echosounder EM 304. Bathymetry and imagery data were collected for 24 h and then processed for 48 h, with the extensive use of cloud technology and automatic data processing. Finally, all datasets were combined to generate a 5-m resolution bathymetric surface, as an example of the deep-water mapping capabilities of the unmanned vehicles’ cooperation and their sensors’ integration.

The concept for an autonomous seafloor mapping system for ocean exploration is being built to compete in the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE competition (http://oceandiscovery. xprize.org) by the international team of Nippon Foundation / GEBCO Alumni (see: http://www.gebco-nf.com/). The Team is advised and mentored by selected GEBCO and industry experts, specialized in ocean mapping, geology, software development and naval architecture. The Team is distinguished by its extraordinary diversity with a global distribution of representatives from academic institutions, offshore survey and technology industries, as well as national hydrographic offices. A newly designed, innovative Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV), called SEA-KIT, will be built to cooperate with any Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) acting as the remote surface access to the deep ocean. The major role of the SEA-KIT in the competition design is 1) the transportation of a commercially available AUV to and from the land launch site to the survey area and 2) the deployment and recovery of the AUV. Additionally, the SEA-KIT surface vessel will offer a positioning solution during AUV operations. Furthermore, if the USV is equipped with hydroacoustic devices, it can function as a stand-alone survey platform for any water depths dependent on the characteristics of the mounted echosounder. Positioning of the SEA-KIT will be realized using the High-Precision Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning data. Satellite and radio communication solutions will be used for data transmission between the remote offshore system and the home base (onshore or mothership) components. Communication between SEA-KIT and the AUV will be performed by means of acoustic signals from an Ultra Short Base Line (USBL) device. Those signals are used for positioning and underwater data transmission. This data will be used for continuous AUV position calculation, using information about the AUV position relative to SEA-KIT. SEA-KIT will also be equipped with an Acoustic Doppler Velocity Log (DVL), Pressure Depth Sensor and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). Automated functions for data processing will be considered.

The satellite compass is one of new variants of satellite navigational devices. Is it still treated with caution on International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) vessels, but has become popular on the fishing vessels and pleasure crafts. The standard data obtained by such devices suggest accuracy of satellite compasses at a level of about 1 degree, so it seems to be as accurate as gyro or the magnetic equivalent. A changeability of heading errors, especially its frequency spectrum, is analyzed and presented in the paper. The results of comparison of an onboard standard gyrocompass, a fiber-optic gyrocompass (FOG) and a satellite compass in real shipping circumstances have been discussed based on the available literature and previous research. The similar comportment of these compasses are confirmed, however, in real circumstances it is difficult to separate heading oscillations produced by the ships yaw (or helmsman abilities) from the oscillations of the compass. Analysis of the heading oscillations has been performed based on the measurements of the heading indications of stationary compass devices and the devices mounted on the vehicles moving on the straight line (straight part of a road and tram line) to separate the impact of the vessel steering system. Results of heading changeability in the frequency domain are presented based on the Fourier transform theory.

The GEBCO-NF Alumni Team is one of the five teams who completed the final round of the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE challenge. This international team is made up of industry experts, advisors from within the GEBCO community and broader ocean community and is led by alumni from the Nippon Foundation / GEBCO Graduate Certificate Ocean Mapping Training Program at the Centre for Coastal and Ocean Mapping / Joint Hydrographic Center (CCOM/JHC) of the University of New Hampshire. The Team is distinguished by its extraordinary diversity with a global distribution of representatives from academic institutions, offshore survey and technology industries, academia as well as national hydrographic offices. The alumni worked closely with partners such as Hushcraft Ltd., Ocean Floor Geophysics Inc., Earth Analytic and Teledyne CARIS as well as equipment supplier Kongsberg Maritime AS to develop and advance the Team concept created for the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE. The project was established and supervised at the University of New Hampshire.The Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE competition aimed to push the boundaries of ocean technologies by creating solutions to the grand challenge of mapping our ocean floor. The competition requirements had to be met within a short timeline of approximately one year per round. The Round 2 final field test was to demonstrate a complete system that could map 250 km ² in 24 hours to produce a grid with 5 m cell size and at least 10 images of the sea floor. Operations had to be remotely coordinated from a land-based operation center. The entire mapping system had to fit into a standard 40-foot shipping container.The aim of the GEBCO-NF Alumni Team has been to leverage existing technology, wherever possible, and to integrate them to achieve the competition requirements. The strategic approach is to develop strong partnerships with technology and services providers to augment the hardware, integration and software needs of the Team.The GEBCO-NF Alumni Team conceived a two-system, Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and Remote-controlled or Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), concept to autonomously map the seafloor in a wide variety of ocean environments. Autonomous seafloor surveys, with remote AUV launch and recovery (human-in-the-loop) and with the USV autonomously tracking the AUV for a complete survey mission while being monitored from a remote shore station, were demonstrated to be a viable option for future offshore survey and inspection projects during Round 1.SEA-KIT, the Team’s USV, is an innovative new vessel that allows for autonomous management of AUV deployment and retrieval. In addition, the capability of being a stand-alone mapping platform was demonstrated during the competition using Kongsberg Maritime’s deep-water multibeam sonar EM304 mounted on the gondola below SEA-KIT.The Kongsberg Maritime HUGIN AUV was used for this competition to execute the underwater operations. The Team was confident that competition criteria could be met by overcoming the surface challenges of delivering an AUV to a deep-water location for mapping, coupled to the proven abilities of the HUGIN.During Round 2 Field Test, the team demonstrated automated and remote processing using a cloud-based hosting environment. End users (judges) were able to consume the GEBCO-NF Alumni Team information rapidly and efficiently.The technology, processes and procedures developed for this project are a big step towards larger scale implementation of these concepts. This development of new and innovative technologies that increase the efficiency of seafloor mapping is the Team’s contribution towards helping meet the ambitious goals of the Nippon Foundation—GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project.

The GEBCO-NF Alumni Team is an international team working on solution towards autonomous Ocean Mapping operations. The Team was initiated and led by alumni of the Nippon Foundation / GEBCO training program at the University of New Hampshire. The alumni worked closely with international partners and suppliers to develop and advance their concept created for the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE. The Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE competition aimed to push the boundaries of ocean technologies by creating solutions to the grand challenge of mapping our oceans. The Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE challenge was to develop a complete system that could map 100 km ² in 16 hours at 5 m horizontal resolution grid and produce images the elicited excitement in the general public. The designated survey area for the XPRIZE challenge could be up to 50 nautical miles offshore and operations had to be remotely coordinated from a land-based operation center. The entire mapping system had to fit into a standard 40-foot shipping container. The aim of the GEBCO-NF Alumni Team was to leverage existing technology, wherever possible, and to integrate them to achieve the competition requirements. Their strategic approach was to develop strong partnerships with technology and services providers to augment the hardware, integration and software needs of the Team. The GEBCO-NF Alumni Team conceived a two-system, Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and Remote-controlled or Uncrewed Surface Vehicle (USV), concept to autonomously map the seafloor in a wide variety of ocean environments. The AUV-USV idea will lead to more efficient, safer and cost-effective seafloor mapping operations. Autonomous seafloor surveys, with remote AUV launch and recovery (human-in-the-loop) and with the USV autonomously tracking the AUV for a complete survey mission while being monitored from a remote shore station, were demonstrated to be a viable option for future offshore survey and inspection projects. The technology, processes and procedures developed for this project are a big step towards larger scale implementation of these concepts.