Perth-based small to medium enterprise Greenroom Robotics has teamed with Austal to develop the Autonomous Remotely Operated Ships (AROS) Platform Controller and AROS Console, both of which are on display at the Indo-Pacific Exposition in Sydney.
The concept integrates Austal’s MARINELINK - Prime platform management system with Greenroom’s Lookout+ optical radar system and Greenroom Maritime Autonomy (GAMA) navigational platform.
Lookout+ makes use of the cameras situated around any vessel and integrates the vision into a common picture to provide situational awareness.
Greenroom’s Chief Operations Officer Harry Hubbert said that MARINELINK - Prime is essentially the platform manager that control’s the ship’s engineering functions, while GAMA and Lookout+ are integrated at a “very fundamental level” to create the AROS capability.
“GAMA is essentially advanced maritime autonomy that can be thought of as a digital helmsman or navigator. It is the brain of the vessel: it decides on the safe navigation of the vessel, and it’s done via software,” he said.
“Lookout+ is a camera-agnostic solution that takes the camera feeds at detects, classifies and geolocates navigational hazards and other maritime objects.
“From Indo-Pacific onwards, any vessel fitted with Austal’s MARINELINK - Prime can be converted to autonomous operations with GAMA in days, rather than weeks or months,” he announced.
The AROS concept has previously been demonstrated with a former Royal Australian Navy 56-metre Armidale-class Patrol Boat. In early 2024, Austal and Greenroom demonstrated the vessel’s ability to autonomously sail 700 nautical miles up and down the coast of Western Australia over four days, while avoiding 144 real or simulated collisions.
“We sailed from Henderson, down to Busselton, up to the Abrolhos Islands and back to Henderson again,” Sam Abbott, Austal’s Head of Research and Development, added. “It was all conducted without human intervention of either the navigation or major engineering systems on board, so it was a very successful outcome.”