Papers by Ørnulf Jan Rødseth
Frontiers in Robotics and AI, May 20, 2022
Editorial on the Research Topic Navigation and Perception for Autonomous Surface Vessels While au... more Editorial on the Research Topic Navigation and Perception for Autonomous Surface Vessels While autonomous navigation for ground robots has been studied for a several decades, a large gap is still present for autonomous vehicles in the marine domain. Challenges include unpredictable dynamics, mostly unstructured environments, and comparatively high cost in terms of logistics and vehicles to conduct experiments. Solving such challenges require new methods that improve the navigation and perception abilities of autonomous surface vessels. Thus, this special research topic in the journal "Frontiers in Robotics and AI" aims at covering new advances around these issues. Four articles were selected for publication and the result is this edition of the journal. In the following we will give a brief overview of the four papers. Deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) techniques have been thoroughly used in the field of Autonomous Surface Vessels both for perception and for navigation. However, many works propose a DRL technique and compare with a limited number of state-of-the-art methods. "Comparing deep reinforcement learning algorithms' ability to safely navigate challenging waters" (Larsen et al.) addresses a so-much needed comparison of different techniques. Specifically, the authors tackle the trade-off between collision avoidance and path planning and analyse the behaviour impact in this trade-off depending on the choice of RL technique. The role of the reward function in this multi-objective optimization is discussed as well. To generalize obstacle avoidance from ground mobile robots to marine vehicles and to bridge the gap between simulation and reality, "Robust ASV Navigation Through Ground to Water Cross-Domain Deep Reinforcement Learning" (Lambert et al.) proposes a navigation method based on a deep reinforcement learning framework for high-level control, integrated with low-level controllers specific to the vehicle. The paper demonstrates the cross-domain generalizability of the proposed method by training a Deep Q Network for a simulated Autonomous Ground Vehicle (AGV) with navigation tasks. It then successfully implements and tests the proposed DRL method on a real AGV as well as an Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) in different scenarios without any retraining. While the paper can be expanded to handle more complex scenarios, e.g., with dynamic obstacles, the paper provides a good methodology for training reinforcement-learning based approaches in domains that are comparatively easier and lower cost for deployments compared to challenging target domains, as the marine one. Deep RL are not the only techniques that can be used for autonomous navigation. The complexity of the issue requires a deep study of the field. Indeed, collision avoidance and safe navigation in environments where other crewed or uncrewed ships sail, are perhaps the biggest challenges for safe operation of autonomous surface vessels. In particular, the coexistence with other crewed ships require that autonomous vessels obey the rights of way for the sea, i.e. the international collision regulations or COLREG as they are called. "Autonomous Collision Avoidance at Sea: A Survey" (Burmeister and Constapel) gives a comprehensive overview of
Journal of Physics: Conference Series
This paper gives a summary of previously published papers on the definition of autonomy for ships... more This paper gives a summary of previously published papers on the definition of autonomy for ships, how this relates to different crewing regimes, and the terminology to be used. A conclusion is that autonomy should be retained as a descriptive term, but that we should distinguish between “full autonomy” and “constrained autonomy”, where the latter is the more relevant term for ships today. The proposed classification of autonomy is related to both degree of automation and degree of human control and will be presented as a matrix with generic classes of autonomy. This matrix is also transformed to a set of more practically useful levels of autonomy based on likely organization of crew on land or on the ship. The paper has mainly been written based on our work with maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) but is also applicable to other types of surface vessels, e.g. inland waterway vessels.
Journal of Physics: Conference Series
The complex picture of maritime transport involving more than 100 thousand ships, more than 8000 ... more The complex picture of maritime transport involving more than 100 thousand ships, more than 8000 ports and a large number of stakeholders fulfilling different roles and being responsible for different processes means that providing up-to-date and timely information during port calls is a complex task. In addition, there are requirements to reduce both the environmental footprint and costs of the maritime transport. From 2019, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) made it mandatory to accept electronic clearance of ships entering foreign ports, meaning that the digitalization of ship-port interfaces to support the port call processes has become an important topic. Further, this means that the interoperability between a large number of ICT systems to support the end-users related to a port call, must be ensured. This paper describes the model in the middle, by which we mean a "least common multiple" regarding data elements and data models to support a consistent exch...
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part O: Journal of Risk and Reliability
Effectively addressing safety, security and cyber-security challenges is quintessential for progr... more Effectively addressing safety, security and cyber-security challenges is quintessential for progressing the development of next generation maritime autonomous shipping. This study aims at developing a novel hybrid, semi-structured process for the hazardous scenarios identification and ranking. This method integrates the operational and functional hazard identification approaches, whilst considering the safety, security and cybersecurity hazards. This method is applied to comprehensively assess the safety of an autonomous inland waterways ship at a preliminary design phase. The hazardous scenarios are identified and ranked by a number of experts participating in a series of sessions. The identified hazards risk is estimated considering the frequency and severity indices, whereas their uncertainty is estimated by employing the standard deviations in these two indices among the experts ranking results. Epistemic uncertainty is also considered during ranking. Risk control measures are p...
Maritime autonomous surface ships provide new capabilities for transport systems design, and by t... more Maritime autonomous surface ships provide new capabilities for transport systems design, and by that the potential to dramatically change ship logistics. Advantages of autonomous ships include operational flexibility with more and smaller ships, combined with new ship hull and superstructure designs, allowing more cargo to be transported at lower cost and reduced emissions. It is also easier to operate smaller ships with alternative energy sources such as batteries, and by that further reducing the emissions. However, the investment cost of an autonomous ship system is perceived to be higher compared with conventional ships. Combined with limited operational experience, this creates a challenging threshold for launching new projects.
Simple autonomous inspection vehicles are suitable for operations where the cost, danger to human... more Simple autonomous inspection vehicles are suitable for operations where the cost, danger to humans, or area of operation prohibits the use of conventional underwater technology. Autonomous vehicles are, however, in their infancy and few such vehicles are available. There are still some problems to be overcome before this technology becomes useful in commercial applications. ROV90 was developed to experiment with different aspects of autonomy in underwater vehicles, including software structures for control and reliability, computer vision and navigational systems. ROV90 is essentially a tethered ROV with added functionality in the sensor and computer subsystems. It cannot be used in outdoor operations because of limited tether length and additional computer equipment. However development of a new vehicle PISCES (Prototype Intelligent Submarine for Cableless Inspection and Surveying) is planned. Based on the ROV90 principles the vehicle will be capable of performing simple missions i...
The SEATONOMY methodology provides a structured approach for design, development and validation o... more The SEATONOMY methodology provides a structured approach for design, development and validation of mobile autonomous maritime operations and systems. The goal is to achieve this by providing system developers of autonomous systems with suitable guidelines, principles, best practices and tools. The methodology encompasses three viewpoints: operational, system and verification & validation. Industrial use cases are used as both input to the methodology, as well as pilotcases for an iterative testing and development of the methodology. Keywords—marine; autonomous operations; industrial autonomous systems;
In a previous paper we have suggested that the transferal of human accountability from an on-site... more In a previous paper we have suggested that the transferal of human accountability from an on-site human actor (such as the captain) to a remote human actor (such as the creator of the autonomous control system) could be regarded as the defining characteristic of autonomous systems. In this paper we take this approach one step further, by suggesting a methodology for how accountability can be used as a basis for systems design of autonomous and remote-controlled operations. Furthermore, the suggested methodology is applied on a hypothetical case of a vessel supporting both autonomous and remote-controlled operation.
This paper provides an overview of the initial position and rationale regarding the development o... more This paper provides an overview of the initial position and rationale regarding the development of an unmanned ship. This is based on the proposal for the EU-funded project MUNIN (Maritime Unmanned Navigation through Intelligence in Networks). Based on the European vision of an autonomous ship, MUNIN’s understanding of autonomy, its contribution towards a sustainable maritime transport system and the current key challenges for implementing unmanned vessels will be explained.
Big Data is getting popular in shipping where large amounts of information is collected to better... more Big Data is getting popular in shipping where large amounts of information is collected to better understand and improve logistics, emissions, energy consumption and maintenance. Constraints to the use of big data include cost and quality of on-board sensors and data acquisition systems, satellite communication, data ownership and technical obstacles to effective collection and use of big data. New protocol standards may simplify the process of collecting and organizing the data, including in the e-navigation domain. This paper gives an overview of some of these issues and possible solutions.
IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2020
The concept of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) has gained much popularity in recent years, particu... more The concept of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) has gained much popularity in recent years, particularly in commercial settings where the name industrial autonomous mobile robot (IAMR) is proposed. In addition to automatic guided vehicles and automated mining trucks, IAMR also includes autonomous merchant ships. AMR is an old concept which was first introduced in the 1980s. Although the concept of AMRs is old and broadly used, there is still no common definition of autonomy when mobile robots are concerned. This paper will review some of the most known definitions and develop a taxonomy for autonomy in mobile autonomous robots. This will be used to compare the different definitions of robotic autonomy. This paper will mainly look at industrial autonomous mobile robots, i.e. systems that are designed to operate with a clear commercial objective in mind and which are normally supported by a remote control centre. This means that the robot is not fully autonomous, but to varying degrees ...
New developments in maritime industry include the design and operation of autonomous ships. The A... more New developments in maritime industry include the design and operation of autonomous ships. The AUTOSHIP project is one initiative promoting the use of autonomous ships in European waters focusing on two specific use cases, a Short Sea Shipping (SSS) cargo vessel and an Inland Waterways (IWW) barge. The AUTOSHIP objectives include thorough regulatory, societal, financial, safety and security analyses for the two investigated use cases as well as the development of a novel framework and methods for the design of autonomous vessels. This objective is achieved with the support of a number of activities, including supply chain, regulatory, risk and gaps analyses. Some results and findings from these activities are presented in this paper. The results demonstrate that the supply chain analysis is important to understand the complex relationships between different partners and phases for the effective design of maritime autonomous systems. Furthermore, a number of regulatory gaps needs to...
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Papers by Ørnulf Jan Rødseth