Sea change: testing service in Solent to bring autonomous vehicles to the waves

Driverless cars have been on the road to commercial success for years and unmanned aircraft broke into public consciousness perhaps a decade ago.

However, despite progress in the air and on land, there has been little apparent shift towards autonomy on the waves. Now, a new service aims to sink that idea and lead the way for a generation of autonomous water vehicles.

BAE Systems and other organisations will design and create the UK’s first autonomous systems testing service, to test unmanned vehicles off the coast of Portsmouth, Southampton and the south east of the Isle of Wight. The Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has awarded BAE a £457,000 grant as part of a £1.5 million investment with partner organisations.

Companies, universities and other bodies will test vehicles such as autonomous catamarans and unmanned submarines along the length of the Solent in a “safe, controlled and realistic” environment. The training system will be based around two vans with mobile command-and-control centres, with the same BAE technology used by the Royal Navy. The centres will also test new sensors for future autonomous vehicles.

“Autonomous and unmanned systems are widely regarded as a vital technology for the future, but there is a great deal of work to be done if we are to unlock its true potential and understand how they are best integrated into wider systems,” said Frank Cotton, BAE’s head of technology for combat systems. “A wide range of organisations from the defence and commercial sectors, along with academia, have ambitions for this technology, and this unique service will allow them to find valuable ways to use it whilst furthering its development.”

BAE will work with ASV Global, Blue Bear Systems Research, Marine Electronic Systems, SeeByte and the University of Southampton to finish the system by the end of the year. The test service partners successfully showcased autonomous capabilities last year in the Royal Navy’s Unmanned Warrior exercise, the “world’s first large-scale demonstration of innovative maritime robotic systems”. One boat used was BAE Systems’ Pacific Class 950 Unmanned Rigid Inflatable Boat, capable of travelling autonomously at up to 47 knots for 12 hours at a time.

Unmanned vehicles have "a great deal of potential" for anti-mine measures, said Cotton to Professional Engineering. "An autonomous vehicle controlled remotely could be a great deal safer by taking crews away from the danger area, whilst also proving more cost-effective," he said.  

"We know from conversations with a number of sectors that there is a great deal of potential here, but as the technology has not yet fully developed we are some way from a ‘revolution’," said Cotton. "That is where our test service comes in, however – for the first time autonomous systems can be tested in a safe, controlled and realistic environment, and the lessons we will all learn will speed up the development of the technology and edge it closer to wider use."

The Solent is home to the port of Southampton and Portsmouth naval base, the headquarters of the Royal Navy. The test service will ensure it remains “a driving force for innovation for years to come,” said LEP maritime chairman Ian Millen.