Intelligent algorithms and systems (vehicles and/or mechanisms) locate and extract economic sound concentrations of e.g. any combinations of nodules, manganese crusts and/or sulphide deposit, and separate uneconomic matter from valuable minerals by applying differences in electric and/or acoustic properties to differentiate economically valuable minerals from cost bearing unprofitable other matters (e.g. mud, gravel, rocks, organic matter), thus providing added profitability compared to existing mining machines. Complex and multiple sophisticated technological fields, including, but not limited to Geophysics, Advanced sensor technology (acoustic and electric parameter detection), Signal processing (feature extraction and pattern recognition), Machine learning/AI (classification algorithms and adaptive systems), Mechanical engineering (precision collection mechanisms), Real-time control systems (feedback-based operation), Economic modeling (dynamic threshold determination) are combined. Both independent systems and add-on vehicles to existing mining machines have been developed. Environmental impacts are minimized by the nature of the invented technical solutions. MS and/or AI methods and algorithms can be incorporated.

A swimmer emergency alerting, tracking, rescue assistance, and rip current mapping system includes a stand and a life preserver that is removably mounted to the stand. The stand includes a solar panel or other charger, and the life preserver includes a battery receiving power from the charger and a sensor that is driven by the battery, such as to detect a location of the life preserver. The stand and the life preservers may wirelessly communicate with another device, such as a user device, to provide information on a status of the stand and the life preserver. A drone may fly from the stand and collect images of a shore, and the drone may process the images to identify a rip current. The drone may use data from a watercraft identifying rip current to train the processing of the images.

A ship maneuvering system includes a plurality of inertial measurement units, and a controller configured or programmed to estimate a property of a wave received by a marine vessel based on a behavior of a hull of the marine vessel measured by the plurality of inertial measurement units, and perform a heading holding control based on an influence on the marine vessel caused by the wave of which the property was estimated.

The present invention provides a cable planning method based a fast marching method applied with simulated annealing (FMM/SA) algorithm. In the FMM/SA algorithm-based cable planning method, the FMM used to obtain the optimal submarine cable path with the lowest life-cycle cost, and the SA algorithm is used to continuously adjust the weight of each design consideration with the aim to achieve an optimal cable path that is as close as possible to a real-life cable path which has a history of cost-effectiveness and resilience. The set of weights contributed to the optimal cable path is then used as an optimal set of weights of design considerations for cable path planning. The FMM/SA algorithm-based cable planning method can provide a computationally effective approach which has lower computation costs and better performance in generating cable paths with optimal life-cycle cost and reliability.

An optimized coverage-path planning method for a single unmanned surface mapping vessel (USMV) is implemented with a system including a computer processor executing a computer program loaded in a storage device and implanting the method. The method includes rasterizing and initializing an environmental map, and an unmanned vessel outputting position data and obstacle data according to the environmental map so that path planning is started to provide a target point to the unmanned vessel. In case of tripping in a local optimum at a current-level map for the target point, the map level is updated in an ascending order until the highest level, in order to identify a map level in which the target point is found.

Systems and methods for geophysical exploration of underwater environments are provided. In some embodiments, a geophysical measurement system includes at least one cable having a cable distributed array of electrodes. In some embodiments, the geophysical measurement system further includes at least first and second unmanned vehicles submersible below water for coupling at respective points along the cable so as to maneuver a segment of the cable that includes at least some of the cable distributed array of electrodes through a series of positions and orientations relative to subsurface geologic features below the water, where respective ones of the electrodes along the maneuvered segment participate as transmitters or receivers in electrical resistivity imaging of the subsurface geologic features from at least first and second maneuvered-to positions or orientations that differ from one another.

Methods and systems are provided for planning locations to surface an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) to reset inertial navigation errors by obtaining a GPS fix. A spatial point process model for historical maritime traffic is used to quantify surfacing risk throughout an operational area. Accumulated navigation uncertainty for each candidate surfacing point of a feasible path is modeled and penalized. This allows autonomy to balance the tradeoff between surfacing risk, navigation performance and pathlength. The planning method results in minimizing the path length the UUV travels and the number of times the UUV surfaces, while satisfying a defined constraint on maximum allowable risk.

Marine vessel control can include the application of surge force, sway force, and yaw moment. The present subject matter can include two aspects, including determination of forces and moments to achieve desired motion, and translation of such forces and moments into thrust and steering commands suitable for the available propulsion devices. Various operating modes can be employed to effectively control their motion. In each operating mode, feedback control can be used to determine one or more of a target surge force, sway force, or yaw moment, or combinations thereof. The feedback controller can include individual PID (or other) controllers corresponding to each degree of freedom, a state feedback controller, or other feedback control architectures. A current vessel state can be compared to the target vessel state to determine the error in position, heading, and speed. These errors can be transformed from the global coordinate system to the vessel coordinate system for determination of appropriate thrust and steering commands.

Provided is a system, method, and product for monitoring an environment with a swarm of autonomous underwater vehicles. The system includes at least one processor configured to determine 3D data of at least a portion of an environment of the at least one AUV, determine, based on the 3D data, at least one object and a position of the at least one object in the environment, receive, from at least one other AUV of the plurality of AUVs, data representing the at least one object and the position of the at least one object, and generate, while traveling in the swarm, updated 3D data based on the 3D data and the data representing the at least one object and the position of the at least one object from the at least one other AUV.

Disclosed is a marine and freshwater debris collection system using drones and a method for collecting debris using the same. More specifically, the invention allows for the faster and more efficient collection of debris in marine and freshwater environments through the use of drones. In particular, the drones approach a target point, launch a net, and a net hoisting and retrieval hook is used to hoist the trapped debris onto the vessel. This entire process is automated or semi-automated, thereby maximizing the efficiency of the debris collection operation.