Unmanned Maritime Systems

The worlds vast oceans have provided for all living things since the beginning of time.  For thousands of years they have been looked to as a source of food, a highway to trade, a vehicle to fight wars, and an opportunity to discover new lands.  Although they have been exploited throughout time, only in recent history have we realized our negative impact and the possible consequences.  The development and advancement of technology has “opened the eyes of the world”.  All efforts forward are impacted by the present environmental conscience of the world and a continuous will to explore all options the oceans have to offer.  As technology evolves quickly a collaboration of unmanned and manned vehicles, scientists, private companies, different militaries and government agencies, and the general population have the ability and are monitoring, sampling and mapping the oceans.  “A new strategic alliance wants to harness all of that data to slash maritime industry’s carbon emissions and increase its efficiency by 2050,” (Lystra, 2019).  Driven by this information, present and future unmanned maritime systems are designed to minimize or remove the negative environmental impact.

Our world oceans produce more than 50% of the world’s oxygen, stores more than 50 times more carbon dioxide than our atmosphere, regulates our climate, provides recreation, food, ingredients for medicine, and many other things, (“Why should we,” 2019).  It also represents an estimated $1.5 trillion in global value added, yearly (“Mapping Ocean Wealth,” 2019).  Our dependence is obvious and modern technology and techniques have allowed us to get a better understanding of what can be done to reduce harmful impact.  Although we receive ocean data from seafaring ships, satellites, and sensor mounted buoys, many organizations have employed the use of ocean and wave gliders to expedite the process.  

“The Wave Glider revolutionizes how we explore and understand the world’s oceans by gathering data in ways or locations previously too costly or challenging to operate.  Powered by wave and solar energy, the Wave Glider is an autonomous, unmanned surface vehicle (USV) that operates individually or in fleets delivering real-time data for up to a year with no fuel.”

“Reimagine Ocean Monitoring,” (2019)

They provide us information on ocean temperature, salinity, currents, chlorophyll fluorescence, depth, acidification, amount of trash, and noise pollution to name a few, (“Autonomous Surface Vehicles,” 2019).  This massive amount of new data is being made accessible to figure how maritime industries and vehicles can be more environmentally friendly.

“If the maritime industry were a country, it would be the sixth largest emitter of climate-warming gases in the world. Increasing shipping efficiencies — which would make the maritime trades vastly more profitable — could reduce those emissions by 20 percent”, (Lystra, 2019).  Although it could, it would need a huge push by governments.  “CO2 emissions from shipping are forecast to increase by 50% by 2050 as international shipping has not been included in any international agreement for combatting climate change, such as the Kyoto Protocol or the Paris Agreement,” (Christodoulou, Gonzales-Aregall, Linde, Vierth, & Cullinane, 2019).  With over 50,000 ships in the merchant fleet today (“Number of ships,” 2019), and most of them built on old technology and using old technology, there is a dire need to transition.  The maritime industry is beginning to use more efficient boat designs, more efficient propellers, liquified natural gas for fuel, current software programs designed for automation and efficiency, solar energy, and wind energy to soften their environmental footprint.  Although new practices and designs are slowly being applied to merchant and military ships, they were built-in to all unmanned maritime systems. 

Unmanned maritime systems are the future of the maritime industry because of their efficiency and eco-friendly impact on the world.  As continuous data collection, from all upgraded maritime vessels, is uplinked to a cloud accessible by all vessels (in the biggest picture), the entire operation will be more fluid and efficient.  The biggest problem moving forward is connectivity and interaction amongst the vessels dependent on the information. 

References:

Autonomous Surface Vehicles; Developing new platforms for carbon measurements. (2019, December). PMEL Carbon Program. Retrieved from https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Autonomous+Surface+Vehicles

Christodoulou, A., Gonzalez-Aregall, M., Linde, T., Vierth, I., & Cullinane, K. (2019). Targeting the reduction of shipping emissions to air: A global review and taxonomy of policies, incentives and measures. Maritime Business Review. Retrieved from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MABR-08-2018-0030/full/html

Lystra, T. (2019). Sea change: Maritime and tech leaders join forces to find innovative uses for ocean data. GeekWire.Retrieved from https://www.geekwire.com/2019/sea-change-maritime-tech-leaders-join-forces-find-innovative-uses-ocean-data/

Mapping Ocean Wealth; Understanding the value of our ocean. (2019, November). The Nature Conservancy.Retrieved from https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-priorities/protect-water-and-land/land-and-water-stories/mapping-ocean-wealth-1/

Number of ships in the world merchant fleet as of January 1. 2019, by type. (2019, January). Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com=7/statistics/264024/number-of-merchant-ships-worldwide-by-type/

Reimagine Ocean Monitoring and Operations. Unmanned Robots Powered by Nature. (2019, December). Liquid Robotics. Retrieved from https://www.liquid-robotics.com/wave-glider/overview/

Why should we care about the ocean? (2019, November). National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved from https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/why-care-about-ocean.html