Ship Collision Warning System

January 17, 2018 PBS News Hour "Harsh legal charges for US Navy ship collisions sending tough message"

Justification

This demonstration suggests that there are many human errors that can be avoided through the use of embedded intelligence. In this example, we have a KEEL-based operational policy that uses external data / sensors to detect another ship within a range. First a simple detection within range is identified. As the other ship gets closer, an advisory warning is generated to give the crew notice that they should be aware of the other ship. As it continues to get closer, a warning is generated to make an evasive maneuver. And if the other ship is about to collide, a collision warning is issued to the crew.

There is one other feature built into the policy. This feature allows the control of the ship to be removed from the crew and autonomous control takes over. The same sequence described above is in place.

A vertical slider "control" is provided that controls if/when the autonomous control takes over command.

 

 

Operation of the Demonstration

This Warning System for ship S1 is "only" concerned with the relative location of ship S2. It is only intended to give warnings to crew.

You can reposition the two ships with drag and drop with your mouse.

The demonstration has one other trigger, suggesting that the ship "could" automatically shift to autonomous operation (where behavior would be controlled by KEEL Engine(s)).

The vertical slider at the upper right allows the setting of the threshold where autonomous operations would take over from the crew. Sliding the slider all the way to the top would disallow autonomous operation, no matter how close the ships came.

 

NOTE: Demonstration only

This just suggests some ideas of what can easily be accomplished with KEEL Technology.

 

Documentation

Interactive Influence Diagram providing high level documentation of the policy.

Interactive KEEL Rendering of the policy providing detailed documentation of the policy. This is suitable for testing in a M&S environment or in after mission reviews where it is necessary to audit the behavior of the system (a process that could be accomplished in minutes, using KEEL "Language Animation"). This KEEL Engine is running in the demonstration above and controlling the warning lights and triggering autonomous behavior if it is enabled with the slider.

 

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