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Rapidly Fielding Autonomous Systems at Sea
A Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) at the Technology Readiness Experimentation event in San Diego in March. This was one of several types of uncrewed surface vessels analyzed by APL at the event.
Credit: Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Yeager
As the Department of Defense aims to accelerate delivery of autonomous systems to the warfighter, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) are lending their insights and expertise to rapidly integrate, test and assess low-cost, uncrewed maritime systems under a comprehensive Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering — or OUSD(R&E) — program known as ORCAstrate.
“OUSD is taking a ‘buy, try, decide’ approach to assessing commercially available uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) and the systems within them that best suit their needs,” said Toni Salter, APL’s Emerging Concepts program manager.
“As that happens, there’s a need to modularize the software on these platforms into reusable chunks so that the government can use a specific capability across various programs,” Salter said. “This type of open architecture allows for rapid scaling of these platforms, as well as faster capability upgrades as the technology advances.”
To address that need, the Navy’s Unmanned Maritime Systems program office (PMS 406), within the Program Executive Office, Unmanned and Small Combatants, developed the Unmanned Maritime Autonomy Architecture (UMAA). This is a set of interface standards that modularize autonomy software into reusable components, enabling the Navy to rapidly insert software and reuse it across vehicles instead of paying for the same capability development with each new platform. For example, with UMAA, the Navy can swap in a specific hazard-avoidance component that is best suited to a given mission without changing any other components on the vessel’s software. This concept extends to adding new autonomous behaviors and hardware-specific components. APL has been a key partner of PMS 406 in developing the UMAA standards.
At the U.S. Pacific Fleet-led Integrated Battle Problem (IBP) 24.1 in San Diego, OUSD(R&E) and the Navy tested an UMAA-compliant operational software, known as the Autonomy Baseline Library, in small USVs. OUSD(R&E) leveraged this Navy event for the first Technology Readiness Experimentation (T-REX) of 2024. The T-REX initiative is a critical component of the Department of Defense’s Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) program, which accelerates the development of cutting-edge military technologies. T-REX focuses on accelerating the assessment, integration and maturing of those emerging technologies through rigorous operational experimentation.
Jointly developed by APL, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Combatant Craft Division, Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific and industry partners, the Autonomy Baseline Library was used by Navy operators to successfully command three Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) USV platforms and one Common USV (CUSV) throughout the exercise, which included extended-duration station-keeping on a moving vessel, hazard avoidance and other autonomous behaviors.
Two Swift Sea-Stalker vessels float on the water. These were some of several commercial uncrewed surface vehicles analyzed by APL researchers at military technology experiments in 2024.
Credit: Johns Hopkins APL/Nick Duff
The Autonomy Baseline Library was one of several autonomous systems analyzed by APL at the IBP 24.1 T-REX event. The military also tested a variety of communication software, including OUSD(R&E)’s Multi-Domain Unmanned Secure Integrated Communications (MUSIC) capability. Using a mesh network, MUSIC enables uninterrupted communication and data exchange across land, sea, air, space and cyberspace. It was integrated into nine autonomous systems, establishing key command and control and networking capabilities to task and operate multiple small USVs.
The March event included several rounds of tests, giving researchers on APL’s Data Collection and Analysis team a chance to evaluate how system components performed individually and within larger units on a variety of USV platforms.
“T-REX events allow us to analyze both qualitative and quantitative performance data for these systems,” said Kathryn Lahman, program manager for Advanced Autonomy Test and Evaluation at APL. “There are questions to which we can get qualitative answers from direct observations such as, ‘How did the system help complete the overarching mission? Did it support the warfighters as it was intended?’ Once we get those answers, we also need to evaluate the quantitative data collected from the USV platforms and understand if, and how, it correlates with those observations.”
A MARTAC M-18 uncrewed surface vessel moored to a pier in San Diego. This was another type of vessel analyzed by APL at the Technology Readiness Experimentation Event at the Integrated Battle Problem 24.1 in March.
Credit: Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Yeager
The APL Data Collection and Analysis team continues to collect data and study it against fuel, navigation, communication, contact and situation reports from a variety of sources. This information is being used to develop a body of evidence that will guide future procurement activities.
The team will also expand metrics and measures development against Critical Operational Issues as experimentation and data analysis continue over several T-REX events in 2024. Assessments at each event will expand to include evaluation of unique platform characteristics and further demonstration of the MUSIC network’s ability to provide communications within a heterogeneous fleet of systems.
Since IBP 24.1, the APL ORCAstrate team has expanded integration of autonomy technology onto additional platforms, including the Swiftships Swift Sea-Stalker, MARTAC M-18 and other GARCs. By using open architecture solutions, the APL team integrated the Autonomy Baseline Library and varying levels of hardware solutions onto six total platforms in less than two months, and these were further analyzed in an on-water qualification event in July 2024. These tests will culminate in October at the Autonomous Warrior exercise in Australia, where small USV utility and MUSIC command and control will be demonstrated in a joint force environment.