Team Fortitude has now become a group of nine finalists (six ship scientists and three mechanical engineers) who aim to show proof of concept for a number of autonomous solutions applicable to full scale ships using last year’s autonomous surface vessel (ASV), Fortitude.

In 2013, 54 ships were lost at sea, sank or were never found and it’s recognised that around 80% of marine accidents involve some aspect of human error.  The Team wants to explore how the number of casualties at sea could be reduced by enhancing automation to aid human part of operation from ships. Beyond the safety concerns, up to 40% of a ship’s operating costs are associated with crewing.  The hours can be long and with significant time spent away from home. If you can alter the responsibilities and hours and potentially base more of the crew in shore based roles you can  improve working conditions and reduce some of this cost. Team Fortitude wants to prove the feasibility of autonomous ships by showing how a number of autonomous solutions can approach day to day operational requirements on a vessel (e.g. navigational decision making, diagnostics communications, tank operations and fluid movements etc.). These solutions will be scaled down and applied to the current Fortitude platform to investigate these issues.
By the end of the academic year the Team hope to test the ASV with a fully autonomous journey around the Isle of Wight. Under current constraints this is a totally feasible objective and will not pose any threat to Fortitude as the trip can be supervised. Under additional support the Team will be able to further their improvements to set Fortitude up for a transatlantic crossing. The journey has never been done by an ASV and it would be a fantastic opportunity for the University to make the very most of. The trip would take around 40 days and would truly push the longevity of autonomous parts, a fact that would be absolutely vital for a fully autonomous ship.
To stay up to date with Team Fortitude, head to www.facebook.com/fortitudeASV and/or www.twitter.com/fortitudeASV or to get in touch email fdt@soton.ac.uk.