Many different types of systems are utilized or tasks are performed in a marine environment. The present invention provides various configurations of unmanned vehicles, or drones, that can be operated and/or controlled for such systems or tasks. One or more unmanned vehicles can be integrated with a dedicated marine electronic device of a marine vessel for autonomous control and operation. Additionally or alternatively, the unmanned vehicle can be manually remote operated during use in the marine environment. Such unmanned vehicles can be utilized in many different marine environment systems or tasks, including, for example, navigation, sonar, radar, search and rescue, video streaming, alert functionality, among many others. However, as contemplated by the present invention, the marine environment provides many unique challenges that may be accounted for with operation and control of an unmanned vehicle.

Disclosed is a dynamic collision avoidance method for an unmanned surface vessel based on route replanning. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring navigation information and pose information of a neighboring ship of an unmanned vessel itself via a vessel-borne sensor; constructing a collision cone between the unmanned vessel and the neighboring ship; introducing a degree of uncertainty with respect to observing movement information of the neighboring ship and applying a layer of soft constraint to the collision cone; applying a speed and a heading limit range of the unmanned vessel; acquiring an ultimate candidate speed set; introducing a cost function to select an optimum collision avoidance speed; and performing an internal recycle of navigation simulation with the optimum collision avoidance speed to obtain a route replanning point for dynamic collision avoidance of the unmanned vessel. According to the present invention, a dynamic collision avoidance strategy of the unmanned surface vessel is output in form of route replanning to meet constraints of international regulations for preventing collisions at sea, and it is well adapted to manipulate and control the unmanned vessel itself, so that a dynamic collision avoidance requirement of the unmanned vessel is met.

An ocean iron fertilization (OIF) method and system for electrochemically controlled release of iron in an ocean to stimulate growth of phytoplankton to increase CO.sub.2 sequestration by the ocean. The system includes a cathode submerged or floating in the ocean; an iron or iron-producing anode submerged or floating in the ocean spaced apart from the cathode; and a power supply unit connected to the cathode and the anode. The power supply unit drives electric current between the cathode and the anode such the anode generates oxygen (O.sub.2) and ferrous iron through electrolysis to be released in the ocean, and the cathode produces hydrogen (H.sub.2) and hydroxide (OH—) species through an electrochemical reaction at the cathode.

Systems and associated methods for rapid integration and control of payloads carded by a multi-mode, unmanned vehicle configured to accommodate a variety of payloads of varying size, shape, and interface and control characteristics. Mechanical, power, signal, and logical interfaces to a variety of payloads operate to enable environmental protection, efficient placement and connection to the vehicle, and control of those payloads in multiple environmental modes as well as operational modes (including in air, on the surface of water surface, and underwater).

An apparatus for collecting floating marine debris comprises a frame, a debris collection container in communication with a rear opening of the frame, a pair of helicoidal screws mounted to the frame in a symmetrical V-arrangement that tapers inwardly from a front opening of the frame to the rear opening, and at least one prime mover rotationally coupled to the pair of helicoidal screws. The prime mover is operable to rotate the helicoidal screws in opposite directions at the same angular velocity in water to move the apparatus forward through the water, such that floating marine debris enters the apparatus through the front opening, passes through the rear opening and is collected in the debris collection container.

A system may be configured to manage at least one robotic device. The system may comprise one or more databases and one or more processors in communication with the one or more databases. The one or more processors may be configured to provide an operating system for the at least one robotic device, control motion of the at least one robotic device, configure at least one sensor removably coupled to the at least one robotic device, process data collected by the at least one sensor, and/or perform localization and/or area mapping for the at least one robotic device by comparing data collected by the at least one sensor with data in the one or more databases to generate localization and/or area mapping data.

This invention provides a support device that can be attached to and detached from an unmanned submarine and can be attached with a photographing camera and an illumination light. The support device (100) of the present embodiment includes a first frame (10U, 10H) to which an unmanned submarine is attached/detached, a second frame (10B, 10V) formed corresponding to the first frame, and a support material (20) arranged between the first frame and the second frame so as to connect the first frame and the second frame and formed of a buoyancy material having a specific density of less than 1. Further, the support device includes a lighting mount (30) for an illumination light attached to the support material and a shooting mount (40) for a photographing camera attached to the support material or the second frame.

The disclosed method measures a line angle of a mooring line connected to a floating object floating in a body of water, the mooring line being connected between the floating object and an anchoring body disposed in a bed of the body of water, in which the floating object is coupled to the mooring line by a line connector. The method includes: defining at least three data points each associated with a respective location on the mooring line; on the data points obtaining a value associated with the location on the mooring line; determining parameters of an equation describing an anchor line curve from the values associated with the location on the mooring line for the data points; calculating at a predetermined position on the mooring line a line angle of the mooring line from a derivative of the equation at the predetermined position based on the parameters.

A distributed acoustic anti-unmanned boat intelligence system (DAAUBS) for detecting unmanned boats (UB) approaching protected sites includes a plurality of airborne defense agents (ADAs) and a base station. Each ADA is equipped with air balloons, tethers, buoys, a directional microphone array, a first computing device, and a transceiver. The first computing device causes at least processor to determine information regarding each approaching UB. The base station includes a control center configured with a wideband communications link configured to communicate with the transceiver of each ADA. The DAAUBS control center includes a second computing device performing an intelligence method. The second processor receives and aggregates the data of each approaching UB and performs adaptive noise cancellation to remove environmental background noise. The second processor uses a deep learning classifier to classify at least one of a type and size of the UB.

A power system for an unmanned surface vehicle includes a fuel cell including a fuel cell stack, where the fuel cell stack includes a fuel inlet. The power system also includes a fuel storage including at least one fuel-storage module fluidly connected to the fuel inlet of the fuel cell stack. The fuel-storage module is a source of energy for the fuel cell. The power system also includes a fuel and thermal management system fluidly connected to the fuel inlet of the fuel cell stack. The fuel and thermal management system includes a heat exchanger in thermal communication with the fuel cell stack for removing waste heat produced by the fuel cell stack during operation. The fuel and thermal management system also includes a flow valve, a pressure regulator, and a conduit.