The project will evaluate how smart functions can evolve to support unmanned surface vessels and their interaction with human users. The project consists of two main sub-parts:
- Terrain-Aided Navigation: GPS and other GNSS systems are in most cases providing an accurate position estimation. In some situations, they can not be fully trusted, though. In this sub-project, we have used a particle filter to compare bottom depth measurements, magnetic intensity measurements, and bearings to known landmarks with known maps. By this fusion of information sources, we have created a robust method for position estimation.
- Remote supervision of an unmanned surface vessel via Virtual Reality: In this sub-project, we have designed a user interface for remote supervision of an unmanned surface vessel. In a real-world scenario, there is often a limit in the bandwidth between the ship and the user that controls the ship remotely, which prohibits video streams and the usage of high-resolution images. By this, we have used a virtual environment, which has been complemented with small objects detected by the remote vessel. We have conducted a user study, which has shown that the Virtual Reality (VR) approach strengthens the situational awareness capability, and increases the user's ability to detect dangerous situations.