At the start of November, Artur Lidtke (FSI), Daniel Roper (NOC), Georgios Salavasidis (NOC and UoS), Jon Downes (FSI), and Sophia M Schillai (FSI and NOC) headed to Tokyo for the AUV2016 conference.
From newest AUV developments in sensors and navigation to multi vehicle cooperation, the AUV2016 conference covered the current state of the art in Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. Our own contributions ranged from Computational Fluid Dynamics for the EU H2020 Bridges glider project, to vehicle risk and safe navigation of AUV in unknown terrain with restricted sensor input and novel power supply solutions.
Besides presentations, the conference included a demonstration of the impressive AUVs at the University of Tokyo and a student competition for designing a novel AUV, in which Sophia managed to impress the 8 international judges and placed first with her Pipefish AUV.
 On the last day, group discussions on the current gaps in AUV development gave us the chance to exchange ideas and get the perspective of experienced AUV researchers from across the world.
After the conference we were given a tour of the headquarters of JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology), including their newest research vessel KAIMEI, the manned submersible SHINKAI and the 10 m long URASHIMA AUV.
IMAGE CAPTION: Blair Thornton, who has now joined us in Southampton, showing the BOSS-A AUV to Artur and Sophia at The University of Tokyo

On 1st November 2016 Mike Ellis, a Ship Science Graduate, visited Boldrewood to present the Babcock Part 2 Structures Design Award 2016. The winners of this year’s award were Charlotte Dodge and Nathaniel Warren, who both received cash prizes.  Highly commended certificates were presented to Xiao Ma, Nadir Wahab and Yifu Zhang. The winners of the award are selected for the high quality of their Structural Design course work submitted for SESS2016, Ship Structural Design and Production.

This module aims to examine aspects of design relevant to the longitudinal and transverse strength of a ship.  This is conducted through both first principles design and the use of classification society rules. In addition the production technology applicable to the shipbuilding industry is examined from the perspective of the shipyard and its management but also from a design for production viewpoint. The complementary management module provides production planning and scheduling relevant to ship production.

The 10th Symposium on High Performance Marine Vehicles was held in Cortona this October, on the theme “Technologies for Ships of the Future”. Dr. Weymouth represented the University of Southampton and the Fluid Structure Interaction group, giving an invited review on biologically-inspired methods for marine propulsion and maneuvering. There were quite a few interesting talks on biologically-inspired technologies as well; from shark skin and dolphin blubber inspired coatings to squid and flagella inspired underwater vehicles. The proceedings can be found via www.hiper-conf.info
Marine and maritime universities from around the world were in attendance and gave presentations, including academics from the United States (U. Michigan, Florida IT), the UK (Strathclyde, Newcastle, UCL), Europe (NTNU, TU Delft, TUMM, NTUA) and many others. There were also many research and industry groups, from Dell to the US and UK Naval research labs. There were many talks on automation and drag reduction, and the major theme seemed to be increasing maritime vessel efficiency in design, construction, and operation.
Overall the symposium was a great opportunity to renew connections from around the world and any trip to Cortona is a chance to take in the scenery, drink some wine, and even brush up on your pasta making.

University  of Southampton Ship Science students continue to excel at National level with the Greenwich Forum prize for the 2016 best undergraduate project/dissertation awarded to Xiaoming Yang.  Her work was judged the best out of a strong field of seven and dealt with the important topic of parametric roll which has been a concern for certain categories of large ships in recent years. Xiaoming graduated as top of her class with a BEng in Ship Science in June 2016.

At the end of September FSI PhD student and Ship Science MEng graduate James Bowker and Dr Nick Townsend presented their research at the OCEANS16 conference in Monterey, California.

The conference which featured over 500 technical presentations and industrial exhibitions was a real show case of latest ideas and innovations in marine technology. There were sessions on autonomous vehicle design, navigation, control, communication, sensors, imaging, and hydrodynamics – every abbreviation you could think off ASV, AUV, UAV, UUV, ROV!

James and Nick presented their research which is exploring and developing new energy scavenging technologies that can augment and power autonomous marine vehicles such as AUVs, ASVs and potentially boats and ships.
James’ paper “Experimental analysis of submerged flapping foils; implications for autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs)” explores the use of submerged or tandem flapping foils as a mechanism to convert ocean wave energy directly into propulsion or to generate power and recharge the platform.
Nick’s paper “In situ results from a new energy scavenging system for an autonomous underwater vehicle” explores capturing the undesired wave induced motions (roll and pitch) of a floating platform through a gyroscopic system.

 

FSI PhD student Laura demonstrates that her understanding of hydrofoil is not just academic but also can be demonstrated out on the water where it counts. It has been a busy month or so with her recent award winning paper at the conference in South Africa      Also reported by Landrover BAR   where she has been working on  a placement since last year.  She reports on the Italian National Championships as follows

Last week my helm (Francesco Porro) and I (Laura Marimon Giovannetti) were in Formia racing for the Italian Championship title. The weather conditions were not the best, but we managed to get 5 races in in light wind conditions – 3 of which we won!

We sailed well throughout the week and managed to stay calm during the long waits for the wind. Our final scores were: 1-(3)-1-3-1!
The opponents were extremely strong and we managed to defeat the Italian representative in the Rio 2016 Olympics games (Bissaro and Sicouri) who came 5th at the Olympics! We are extremely happy with our performance and we look forward to go and trial the new foiling NACRA 17 at the end of October, in the hope that the NACRA class will decide the best boat for us to sail in the Olympic cycle toward Tokyo 2020.
 

 
 
Dr Nick Townsend in FSI is coordinating the University of Southampton team that is entering the Xprize for  ocean exploration
More than two-thirds of our planet is covered by water yet we have only explored 5% of the ocean. This physically challenging environment prohibits today’s mapping technologies from exploring the ocean. The Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE will incentivize the innovation required to reach the scale, depth, speed and resolution necessary to illuminate the mysteries of the deep and discover what has remained unknown since the dawn of time.
The University of Southampton team is currently recruiting to our team whether you are a PhD student, member of staff, or a new starting undergraduate or foundation year student there will be a role for all.
Please contact Dr Townsend via his email to find out more!