10 April 2018
BMT in partnership with ASV Global (ASV) is leading a new £1.2million research project to enhance the safety and reliability of autonomous navigation. The project team will use deep learning machine vision systems trained with a unique combination of simulated and real-world data. Part funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, this project will enhance situational awareness enabling the USV to operate in extreme and congested marine environments.
The Synthetic Imagery training for Machine Vision in Extreme Environments (SIMVEE) project will build upon ASV’s existing, COLREG cognisant, autonomous collision avoidance and path planning capability. The project will use BMT’s REMBRANDT simulator to train and validate ASV Global’s vision algorithms to detect and classify objects at sea.
A key project output will be improved situational awareness for both the autonomy onboard and the remote human supervisor. The unique combination of real world and simulated data to train deep learning algorithms will improve the reliability of the existing system extending safe operations into complex environments with a wide range of objects to detect, classify and avoid.
Richard Daltry, R&D Director at ASV Global said: “This work will provide a significant step in the capability of ASV Global’s ASView autonomous control and navigation system. Today we use a remote human supervisor and AIS to classify objects and ensure safe operations. The addition of machine vision that detects and classifies objects extends our COLREG compliant autonomous navigation, enabling operations in limited bandwidth with reduced supervisor workload.”
Phil Thompson, Managing Director at BMT comments: “We’re delighted to be partnering with ASV on this project. This research will play a pivotal role in helping to accelerate the wider adoption of unmanned systems and increase trust in their feasibility by mariners around the world.”
Utilising data gathered by BMT’s REMBRANDT ship manoeuvring simulator as well as real world onboard camera data will allow the team to train the autonomy system with large quantities of data. This method provides a cost-effective solution to generating the data and accelerates the machine learning process. The project will not only allow ASVs to operate in the same way as traditional manned vessels at sea but will also open up new use cases and applications with the added use of BMT’s Search and Rescue Information System, (SARIS)
6 January 2021
We are pleased to announce that Maritime UK has confirmed the appointment of Sarah Kenny OBE as its new Chair, effective this month.
11 November 2020
BMT pauses to remember at their offices around the world. To mark the date, here are some reflections from a few of our UK employees who served in the Armed Forces.
5 November 2020
In these challenging times, we understand the difficulties faced when needing to audit and inspect your vessels. The current international travel restrictions for Covid-19 probably makes it difficult, if not impossible, for your superintendents to perform the necessary ship visits. BMT offers tailormade solutions to assist you in dealing with these challenges.
30 October 2020
We have reached an important milestone with MATE. As of today, our cloud-based tool called MATE has been used for more than 2,000 surveys. MATE captures and tracks any and all aspects of a vessel’s condition, following a pre-defined and often tailor made inspection format, and can visualise its development over time.