Marine robotics at CMRE: from competitions to regulation

Marine robotics at CMRE: from competitions to regulation

Marine robotics is among the focus areas of the NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO) Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE). For the past ten years, CMRE has been organizing robotics competitions. Initially dedicated to Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and attended by students only, these competitions have evolved to multi-domain competitions, including all three domains, land, air and sea (both underwater and surface). While the first competitions were focused on educational aspects, later, both Grand-Challenge style and benchmarking-oriented competitions were held. Competitions are becoming more popular and can help the definition of standard performance tests. These benchmarks can help companies selling their robots to show their performance in a realistic setup. The other emergent need to spread the safe use of robots at sea is the need for regulation. Currently, there is no consolidated international framework that encompasses the operation of marine robots. Recent efforts related to the development of so-called Unmanned Ships are changing the regulatory landscape, but several issues remain. In this talk, both aspects will be address and work performed by CMRE on these areas will be described.