Increased autonomy is inevitable aboard ships, and educators need to be preparing the mariners of the future for this eventuality. This paper will provide a brief overview of current and projected shipboard autonomy, incorporating views of unmanned vehicle researchers and licensed mariners, from 3rd mates and 3rd engineers to masters and chief engineers. From this background, projections about how the deck and engine officer roles are expected to change in the coming years will be presented. Understanding the future of these officers is critical to equipping our current students to be successful and relevant throughout the length of their careers. For example, a fully autonomous vessel, one that does not need human feedback, would be able to navigate and make decisions on its own, but may still need crew onboard to perform maintenance tasks and repairs. While a bridge crew may not be required while underway, deck officers will be needed to develop and improve the algorithms behind the autonomy. Additionally, a bridge crew would need to be available if the situation becomes too chaotic for the autonomy to navigate safely. Engine officers on the vessel will need to be able to troubleshoot and repair not only the mechanical components of the vessel but also the components that serve as the brain of the vessel. In both cases, the crew will need additional training to appropriately prepare them. This is just one potential configuration for a vessel. For other configurations, such as an unmanned vessel controlled from a shore-based control center, different skill sets will be required. However, between all of these, unifying concepts can be extracted, such as the ability to code. Identifying these now will allow maritime institutions to develop foundational courses which can be built upon as the requirements for future mariners become clear.
aine is a relatively small state with a population of slightly more than 1.2 mil-M lion residents and a gross state product (GSP) of $23.3 billion. The GSP by sector (percentage) is: Manufacturing 19.1, services 17.5, trade 17.2, finance 16.9, government 13.6, transportation 7.3, construction 5.8, and agriculture 2.6.
This paper reviews Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) that can be implemented to compensate for actuators that are in a faulted state or operating abnormally. Eventually, all actuators will fail or wear out, and these actuator faults must be managed if a system is to operate safely. The AIS are adaptive algorithms which are inherently well-suited to these situations by treating these faults as infections that must be combated. However, the computational intensity of these algorithms has caused them to have limited success in real-time situations. With the advent of distributed and cloud-based computing these algorithms have begun to be feasible for diagnosing faulted actuators and then generating compensating controllers in near-real-time. To encourage the application of AIS to these situations, this work presents research for the fundamental operating principles of AIS, their applications, and a brief case-study on their applicability to fault compensation by considering an overactuated rover with four independent drive wheels and independent front and rear steering.
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