Design and analysis of a system of rescue drones for urban autonomous urban passenger ferries

The interest in autonomous transport solutions at sea has increased dramatically the last decade, and the development of related technologies, such as autonomous navigation with collision avoidance and online risk monitoring, has come far. Many of the potential benefits of autonomous transport solutions at sea depends on the possibility of significantly reducing or eliminating the need for onboard manning of the vessels.

This project gives you the opportunity to contribute towards the realization of urban autonomous passenger ferries and the development of systems needed in emergency situations, such as a person falling overboard or being found in the water, or medical emergencies of passengers. These scenarios are challenging compared to today's solution, since urban autonomous passenger ferries may not have crew on board that could physically assist.

The candidate can work with tasks such as (but not limited to):

• Perform a desktop hazard analysis to systematically identify high-level safety challenges related to handling emergency situations, such as fire onboard, for the autonomous ferry with no or very limited crew.
• Develop a concept of operation (CONOPS) for a system of drones that may be deployed to solve challenges identified in the hazard analysis.
• Investigate/develop operational concepts for shared rescue capabilities across multiple stakeholders.

The specialization project is related to the AutoSafe research project. The candidate will have the opportunity to cooperate with project partners covering key elements of the maritime value chain, such as SINTEF, Zeabuz, Torghatten, Multi Maritime, Autronica and Viking Norsafe.