Taken alone, any of the three branches of navigation autonomy, equipment health monitoring, and mechanical and electrical system automation can have a profound effect on the operation of a yacht; when designed into the vessel from its conception, that effect can be groundbreaking with respect to maximising availability and minimising operational and maintenance costs.

The company’s prior experience with autonomous vessel research and development programs means it’s well-placed to understand the challenges and limitations of this field and has seen it partner with traditional and non-traditional technology providers to push automation for the best results.

Navigation Autonomy

Navigation autonomy relieves the workload on the vessel operator, and unmanned vessels have been operating in the commercial and military space for years. Autonomous navigation systems create an electronic world model, fusing data from onboard sensors, and information sources like GPS, radar, AIS, electronic charts, weather information systems and video cameras to safely navigate both highly-congested areas and open seas.

Mechanical and Electrical System Automation

Mechanical and electrical system automation is like having an onboard engineering team at your fingertips. By ensuring elements at the sub-system level are AI-ready, the vessel can be kept operating at peak performance, without any additional workload for the onboard engineering team.

Equipment Health Monitoring

The number and complexity of auxiliary systems and equipment onboard yachts is increasing year-on-year, and with that comes the increasing demand on crews’ time to interpret feedback from the systems. When the yacht is operational and all systems are active, the sheer volume to be monitored can become overwhelming, which is where computing power can be harnessed to streamline the process and provide a better outcome for vessel owners.

Capturing and monitoring the data in real time provides advanced diagnostics and prognostics of onboard systems and equipment through the use of sensors and data collection. Trending and machine learning can then be used to provide real time feedback onboard the vessel for almost all systems, which can then be used to identify almost all potential faults in advance – allowing for correction before they occur and maximizing the owner’s use and enjoyment of the vessel.

Cybersecurity

Considering the risks associated with advanced electronic communication and control systems, the vessel is being develop with integrated cybersecurity. Communication channels and mission critical information needs to be encrypted and protected against both malicious and unintentional adverse impact of misconfiguration and data compromises. Hardware and software for autonomy is assessed for vulnerabilities and hardened against potential intrusion attempts.

Unmanned and autonomous solution’s dependence on accurate and timely communication makes cyber resiliency in an autonomous solution a prime security objective. Convergence of information and operational technology, including ICS components, on autonomous vessels highlight the importance of data integrity and system availability. A comprehensive and a holistic cybersecurity approach addresses these concerns.