Nichols Martin
The Office of Naval Research has commissioned Charles River Analytics to develop a maritime detection technology for autonomous surface vessels under a $1.6M program.
The 18-month effort, dubbed Topside Optical Processing for Global Unmanned Navy, or TOPGUN, aims to leverage deep learning algorithms to support target detection distance, ship type identification and collision prevention, the company said Monday.
Charles River Analytics applies its framework to develop a ship detection function designed to perform fast and convolutional neural networks for ship classification.
“Because TOPGUN is camera-agnostic, we can apply this same technology to new programs and new platforms,” said Ross Eaton, principal scientist at Charles River Analytics.
The effort also aims to help autonomous ships comply with international regulations for preventing collisions at sea, or COLREGS.
