Evaluation of the utility and performance of an autonomous surface vehicle for mobile monitoring of waterborne biochemical agents

Real-time water quality monitoring is crucial due to land utilization increases which can negatively impact aquatic ecosystems from surface water runoff. Conventional monitoring methodologies are laborious, expensive, and spatio-temporally limited. Autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs), equipped with sensors/instrumentation, serve as mobile sampling stations that reduce labor and enhance data resolution. However, ASV autopilot navigational accuracy is affected by environmental forces (wind, current, and waves) that can alter trajectories of planned paths and negatively affect spatio-temporal resolution of water quality data. This study demonstrated a commercially available solar powered ASV equipped with a multi-sensor payload ability to operate autonomously to accurately and repeatedly maintain established A-B line transects under varying environmental conditions, where lateral deviation from a planned linear route was measured and expressed as cross-track error (XTE). This work provides a framework for development of spatial/temporal resolution limitations of ASVs for real-time monitoring campaigns and future development of in-situ sampling technologies

The Ecosystem of Trust (EoT): Enabling effective deployment of autonomous systems through collaborative and trusted ecosystems

Ecosystems are ubiquitous but trust within them is not guaranteed. Trust is paramount because stakeholders within an ecosystem must collaborate to achieve their objectives. With the twin transitions, digital transformation to go in parallel with green transition, accelerating the deployment of autonomous systems, trust has become even more critical to ensure that the deployed technology creates value. To address this need, we propose an ecosystem of trust approach to support deployment of technology by enabling trust among and between stakeholders, technologies and infrastructures, institutions and governance, and the artificial and natural environments in an ecosystem. The approach can help the stakeholders in the ecosystem to create, deliver, and receive value by addressing their concerns and aligning their objectives. We present an autonomous, zero emission ferry as a real world use case to demonstrate the approach from a stakeholder perspective. We argue that assurance, defined as grounds for justified confidence originated from evidence and knowledge, is a prerequisite to enable the approach. Assurance provides evidence and knowledge that are collected, analysed, and communicated in a systematic, targeted, and meaningful way. Assurance can enable the approach to help successfully deploy technology by ensuring that risk is managed, trust is shared, and value is created.Comment: 15 pages excluding references, 4 figures, 1 tabl