HUGIN2SCOUT

Background:

In recent years, armed conflicts around the world have led to a growing threat to international trade routes - with an increasing risk for civilian and military crews. Sea mines and unexploded ordnance in port approaches and sea lanes pose a real danger alongside possible attacks - in the Black Sea, the Strait of Hormuz, off the Gaza Strip and in other crisis areas. Autonomous watercraft can be used to detect and clear such booby traps in order to conserve human and financial resources. An innovative solution for this is being developed in the HUGIN2SCOUT project. 

Project goals:

The HUGIN2SCOUT project will enable a group of watercraft to coordinate internally, understand complex tasks, translate them into concrete plans and work on them cooperatively. HUGIN2SCOUT stands for Heterogenous Unmanned Group of Intelligent Watercrafts to Scout Seaways and Infrastructure. Its area of application in the maritime environment is reconnaissance, for example when searching for mines or defusing marine hazards using UXO (Unexploded Explosive Ordnance). 

Fraunhofer IOSB and Fraunhofer CML are developing a manufacturer-independent software framework in the HUGIN2SCOUT research project so that various water drones can be used together and operate autonomously. With its help, unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) from different manufacturers can communicate with each other and carry out coordinated actions, whereby the roles of the individual USVs can even be dynamically adapted to a situation. The technical prerequisite for this is a hardware solution that ensures the interface from the USV to the framework. The broad use of UPS fleets offers a range of possibilities and advantages: Autonomous UPS fleets reduce the risk to people on minesweepers and minesweepers, can be deployed quickly to new crisis areas, require fewer financial resources and can react flexibly to new threat situations involving people, infrastructure or merchant fleets. The funding of HUGIN2SCOUT as part of the Fraunhofer Future Foundation is therefore aimed at supporting the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war - autonomously operating USV fleets could clear sea routes and enable safe transportation.

Even outside of crisis areas, there are many opportunities for the use of UPS fleets in the inspection of infrastructure, search and rescue operations, accidents at sea and reconnaissance missions for the safety and ease of shipping.

Tasks of the Fraunhofer CML:

The CML integrates the autonomously operating research platforms SeaLion and SeaDragon into the joint autonomy framework. SeaLion serves as the lead vehicle in the USV swarm. The CML is also responsible for ship detection and classification through data fusion of lidar, camera and AIS data.  

Project consortium:

Fraunhofer IOSB, Fraunhofer CML

HUGIN2SCOUT is funded by the Fraunhofer-Zukunftsstiftung in the “Zukunftsplatz” funding programm.