000007668 001__ 7668
000007668 005__ 20241024114706.0
000007668 02470 $$2doi$$a10.24868/issn.2515-818X.2020.026
000007668 035__ $$a4486284
000007668 037__ $$aGENERAL
000007668 245__ $$aThe Autonomous Machinery Design of Tx Ship
000007668 269__ $$a2020-10-05
000007668 336__ $$aConference Proceedings
000007668 520__ $$aToday’s naval platform procurement processes are dominated by both fiscal and manning pressures that result in lean and ultra-lean-manned technologies being integrated into vessel design. Concurrently there has been huge advances over the last 5 years in ‘systems automation’ and platform autonomy. The vessels that make up tomorrow’s navies will be a force mix of manned, un-manned, or ‘optionally-manned’ platforms.<br>
The Transition Ship (Tx Ship) is a Thales concept for the future development of naval warfare: an optionally manned trimaran that introduces the option of unmanned warships whilst retaining the alternative of keeping the man onboard during early maturation of its systems. The design showcases the benefits of optionally manned assets and offers commanders a flexible platform for anti-submarine warfare, mine countermeasures or intelligence gathering missions, with its technologies also helping reduce manning on conventional ships through state-of-the-art sensors and effectors.<br>
Critical to realising optionally manned vessel operation is fully autonomous management and control of the ship’s mission systems and machinery systems. A manned Engineering Department traditionally keeps the vital systems on board available enabling Command to fight the ship, these include monitoring the performance of machinery system for extended periods, routine equipment maintenance and battle damage control. On Unmanned Surface Vessels, these functions are still very relevant but now need to be undertaken without humans onboard.<br>
This joint paper by Tx Ship consortium members Thales, Steller Systems and Rolls-Royce, discusses the design practices surrounding power and propulsion system and auxiliary systems design considering the lean manned and unmanned missions. Central to this is the selection and optimisation of these systems with respect to availability, rather than more traditional metrics in order to enable the unmanned mission. These systems are fully integrated with the autonomous machinery controller which operates the marine systems in support of the vessel’s mission, calculates the vessel capabilities and impact of health events to assist with mission planning. The control, maintenance, and battle damage concepts designed for Tx Ship’s Marine Engineering systems address the unique challenges of supporting unmanned vessels and contribute to the vessel’s unique autonomous mission capability; these challenges will be outlined in this paper.
000007668 542__ $$fCC-BY-4.0
000007668 6531_ $$aAutonomy
000007668 6531_ $$aAutonomous Shipping
000007668 6531_ $$aUnmanned
000007668 6531_ $$aOptionally-Manned
000007668 6531_ $$aTx Ship
000007668 7001_ $$aEdge, William$$uSteller Systems Ltd, Nailsworth, UK
000007668 7001_ $$aField, Colin$$uRolls-Royce Defence plc., Filton, UK
000007668 7001_ $$aWalsh, Kate$$uThales Underwater Systems UK Ltd, Cheadle, UK
000007668 773__ $$tConference Proceedings of INEC
000007668 773__ $$jINEC 2020
000007668 789__ $$whttps://zenodo.org/record/4486284$$2URL$$eIsIdenticalTo
000007668 8564_ $$9285f9925-1d05-4ed1-babc-70a62e9b286d$$s1590048$$uhttps://library.imarest.org/record/7668/files/INEC_2020_Paper_38.pdf