Verifying collision avoidance behaviours for unmanned surface vehicles using probabilistic model checking

Collision avoidance is an essential safety requirement for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). Normally, its practical verification is non-trivial, due to the stochastic behaviours of both the USVs and the intruders. This paper presents the probabilistic timed automata (PTAs) based formalism for three collision avoidance behaviours of USVs in uncertain dynamic environments, which are associated with the crossing situation in COLREGs. Steering right, acceleration, and deceleration are considered potential evasive manoeuvres. The state-of-the-art prism model checker is applied to analyse the underlying models. This work provides a framework and practical application of the probabilistic model checking for decision making in collision avoidance for USVs

Tractor cabin ergonomics analyses by means of Kinect motion capture technology

Kinect is the de facto standard for real-time depth sensing and motion capture cameras. The sensor is here proposed for exploiting body tracking during driving operations. The motion capture system was developed taking advantage of the Microsoft software development kit (SDK), and implemented for real-time monitoring of body movements of a beginner and an expert tractor drivers, on different tracks (straight and with curves) and with different driving conditions (manual and assisted steering). Tests show how analyses can be done not only in terms of absolute movements, but also in terms of relative shifts, allowing for quantification of angular displacements or rotations

Measuring the Implementation of an Ethics Initiative: Child Protection in Scottish Sport

Methodologies for measuring the implementation of social inclusion and ethics in sport frequently draw on social marketing techniques or stage models of health behaviour change. This paper illustrates how a composite model of cultural change in sport can be used to monitor progress and trace resistance to ethics and social inclusion work in sport. The Scottish research was commissioned by sportscotland to assess how their child protection programme had impacted on a selection of Scottish governing bodies of sport. Fifteen sports were identified by the funder to take part in the research, of which 12 agreed to participate. Telephone and face-to-face interviews were held with key stakeholders at national and club level and supplementary focus groups were held with a small number of club level child protection officers. The results indicate a spread of responses in the different organisations with the following distribution: leaders (5), sceptics (2), followers (4) and resisters (1). These results are discussed in relation to the general cultural shift from ‘permissive’ to ‘prescriptive’ in the agencies responsible for overseeing Scottish child protection in sport

An Autonomous Surface Vehicle for Long Term Operations

Environmental monitoring of marine environments presents several challenges: the harshness of the environment, the often remote location, and most importantly, the vast area it covers. Manual operations are time consuming, often dangerous, and labor intensive. Operations from oceanographic vessels are costly and limited to open seas and generally deeper bodies of water. In addition, with lake, river, and ocean shoreline being a finite resource, waterfront property presents an ever increasing valued commodity, requiring exploration and continued monitoring of remote waterways. In order to efficiently explore and monitor currently known marine environments as well as reach and explore remote areas of interest, we present a design of an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) with the power to cover large areas, the payload capacity to carry sufficient power and sensor equipment, and enough fuel to remain on task for extended periods. An analysis of the design and a discussion on lessons learned during deployments is presented in this paper.Comment: In proceedings of MTS/IEEE OCEANS, 2018, Charlesto