Testing and Evaluating Low Altitude Unmanned Aircraft System Technology for Maritime Domain Awareness and Oil Spill Response in the Arctic

Abstract

National and international policies and treaties require the protection and exploration of the Arctic. The maritime services play a primary role in pursuing responsible Arctic stewardship by protecting the environment and the personnel conducting operations and research in this harsh environment. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is an important partner to the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) in hazard response and mitigation (including oil spills and search and rescue). During Arctic Shield exercises, as part of the USCG Research and Development Center's Arctic Technology Evaluation, manned and unmanned systems including the AeroVironment Puma™ All Environment (AE) (Puma) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), were used to provide real-time information for maritime domain awareness and oil spill response in the Arctic. Real-time information distribution and maritime domain awareness are critical to prepare for and respond to potential environmental disasters in the Arctic. Additionally, the Puma was assessed for shipboard operations capabilities, Arctic air space coordination, deconfliction and safety issues, and real-time data visualization through the Arctic Environmental Response Management Application ® as part of a larger data management plan. The results are provided from the successful Puma testing during the Arctic Shield 2013 and 2014 exercises aboard the USCG Cutter (USCGC; Icebreaker) Healy. An overview of these operations is given with recommendations for future testing and technology assessments of small UAS platforms for Arctic shipboard operational deployments. These findings are put into context for utilization in the field to support operations and decision making in the case of a real oil spill in the Arctic region.

Threat of illicit drug trafficking in the maritime services of Colombia

“…The importance of electronic navigation in global maritime communications is highlighted (Oh et al, 2015). While presenting cases of use of navigation systems to improve maritime domain knowledge and security (Jacobs et al, 2015); (Du et al, 2016). An encryption-based security system is also proposed to mitigate threats to drones used in maritime applications (Jomaa et al, 2023).…”

Surface Ocean Dispersion Observations From the Ship-Tethered Aerostat Remote Sensing System

“…Tethered aerostats and balloons have a long history: They have been used as an aerial imaging and reconnaissance platform for over 100 years (Brewer, 1902;Crawford, 1924;Vierling et al, 2006) and have also seen extensive use in studies of the planetary boundary layer (see Vierling et al, 2006 for a review). Tethered aerostats and balloons have been used at sea and in coastal areas to provide situational awareness during oil spill exercises (Hansen, 2015;Jacobs et al, 2015), to study melt ponds on sea ice (Derksen et al, 1997), to measure toxin levels during in situ oil burning operations during the DwH spill (Aurell and Gullett, 2010), to study surfzone dynamics (Bezerra et al, 1997), to quantify macro-debris on beaches (Nakashima et al, 2011) and on the sea surface (Kako et al, 2012), to monitor marine mammals (Flamm et al, 2000), to study shoreline changes (Eulie et al, 2013), and to track floating buoys on the surface of the ocean (Miyao and Isobe, 2016). While Miyao and Isobe (2016) and Kako et al (2012) used a ship-tethered balloon to track drifting buoys and marine debris, respectively, their overall scientific goals and their methodology differed from those of LASER and STARSS.…”

Adaptive Finite-Time Trajectory Tracking Control for Coaxial HAUVs Facing Uncertainties and Unknown Environmental Disturbances

“…In recent decades, with the continuous development of marine resources across the world, countries have made important progress in the research and development of intelligent marine robotic technologies and developed various types of marine equipment, such as ocean observation buoys [1], underwater gliders (UGs) [2], unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) [3], unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) [4], and ocean unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) [5]. However, the main function of traditional marine robots is to realize surface water and underwater rescue operations, sampling, hydrological monitoring, intelligence gathering, and reconnaissance.…”