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| Protector USV |
by Scott N. Romaniuk
What have been appositely referred to as the "military's smartest toys," robot boats have just become a lot smarter, and so has the US Navy.
It has taken the US government some time, but its team of researchers and developers have begun to discover the effectiveness of swarming by means of autonomous boats - Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) or Autonomous Surface Craft (ASCs). The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is committed to the idea of robot boats and the impact they can have in both defensive and offensive contexts at home and abroad.
A swarm of robot made debuted in Virginia's James River approximately two years ago, and in the final weeks of 2016, the ONR put on another show with its small boats in the Chesapeake Bay estuary, near Washington, DC.
The second demonstration showcased better thinking by the ONR and its autonomous systems, which not only performed well individually, they also demonstrated their capacity to swarm as a coherent unit against a potential enemy while maintaining an intricate information relay system.
Using sophisticated software called, Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing (CARACaS), the USN's Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs) processed data about the potential threat in US waters and responded as if they had a life of their own. The USN's advanced robot boats deftly demonstrated the essence of swarming, much like a flock of hyenas in the presence of a gazelle or lion.
Read the full story at SpaceWar