MAChallenge Rules and Regulations

Challenge Focus: POLLUTION MAPPING

1.  Objective

Maritime Autonomous Systems (MAS) are of increasing importance to a wide range of sectors, including marine science, offshore resource exploitation, maritime transport and defence and maritime security operations. The UK is a technology leader in this area and the Maritime Autonomous Systems Group (MASG) Council of the Society of Maritime Industries (SMI) aims to enhance this reputation and encourage development and take-up of MAS technologies in the UK. The MASG Council sets the policy and guides the activities for this market area, utilising the extensive expertise of its council members.

A key part of the MASG Council’s mission is to encourage young technologists to help them develop careers that contribute to the future of the UK’s MAS industry.

MAChallenge aims to highlight the opportunities in the MAS industry and provide a focus for the future innovators that will drive the industry to the next level.  MAChallenge is focussed on the autonomy of the platform (irrespective of whether it is an underwater or surface vehicle), not the platform itself, with an emphasis on the potential for remote and autonomous pollution detection operations.

The objectives of MAChallenge are:

•  To stretch the knowledge of the students and promote creative thinking;
• Encourage team working through a variety of individual skills; and
• Connect the brightest young talent coming through the UK’s universities with the UK’s MAS Industry.

MAChallenge comprises a focused challenge, equipment, and a venue where future innovators will come together to build, share, and distribute knowledge, and collaboratively expand the envelope of their current capabilities.

The focus of the competition is the autonomous and safe operation of an uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) to map and identify pollutants in the marine environment.

The competition is a team event. Teams are to be up to five strong and must be affiliated to a UK university. Please see section 4 for full information.

2.  Competition Point of Contact

Full details regarding the competition are available on the SMI website. You can also email the dedicated address MAChallenge(at)maritimeindustries.org and the email will be directed to the relevant member of Council, who will endeavour to respond within two working days. However, please check the FAQs on the website before contacting us!

Our postal address is: Society of Maritime Industries, 28-29 Threadneedle Street, London EC2R 8AY.

3.  Competition Outline

MAChallenge 2023 is focussed on the autonomous and safe operation of a USV to map and identify pollutants in the marine environment. Using a USV provided by SMI, teams will develop its autonomous capabilities to achieve the challenges given later in this document.

The competition comprises three key stages:

Stage 1: Team Video Submission

Stage 2: Intermediate Training & Down Select Gateways

Stage 3: On-Water Weekend

A prize of £2,000 will be awarded to the winning team.

Key Dates are:

• August 2022 – Call for Expressions of Interest opens
• September 2022 – Call for video submissions opens
• 14 October 2022 – Deadline for submission of videos
• 21 October 2022 – Stage 2 finalists shortlisted
• 8 December 2022 – First competition gateway – down-select teams
• January 2023 – Teams provided with simulator hardware
• 17 March 2023 – Final 3 teams selected
• 5 May 2023 – Ready for competition check
• 17 – 18 June 2023 – On-water finals weekend at Solent University Ship Handling Centre Timsbury Lake, Hampshire, UK.

For full details and updates including FAQs, please see the SMI website.

4.  Eligibility of Team Members:

Each team will consist of up to five people. Team members must be full time undergraduate students registered at a recognised UK university. A maximum of one individual in each team is exempt from this requirement and may be a postgraduate or working in other employment.

The student members of the team are expected to make significant contributions to the engineering development cycle of their solution to the challenge. University academic and technical staff may be used as advisors but cannot be team members.

For teams who are successfully invited to the challenge weekend, a minimum number of three on-site team members will be expected to attend.

Each team must designate a student team member as their team leader. The team leader is the only person allowed to speak for the team, to request USV deployment, run start, run end, or USV retrieval. All instructions and communications with the MAChallenge organisers will be in English.

5.  Registration Information:

If you are interested in participating in MAChallenge, please register your interest as soon as possible by emailing MAChallenge(at)maritimeindustries.org. Please include:

• Team name
• Team members
• Primary contact details with email and telephone number
• Host university and faculty contact

You will also find a copy of these competition rules, including details of team eligibility here. You may also find our FAQs helpful.

6.  Stage 1 - Team Video Submission:

Specific requirements for the video submission can be found on the SMI website.

To be considered for selection to compete in the remote on-water challenges, you will need to submit a video pitch, addressing ALL the items below, which will be marked as indicated:

• Introduce yourself and your team (10%).
• Outline your experience in this field (20%).
• Describe relevant projects that you have worked on (10%).
• Explain what you think the key technical challenges will be and how you will overcome them (30%).
• Describe the role you see for autonomous systems in dealing with the issue of ocean plastics (20%).
• Explain what you would spend the prize money on (10%).

Videos will need to be uploaded to Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) and shared with MAChallenge(at)maritimeindustries.org by 12-noon on the 14^th October 2022. Each video should be no longer than 3 minutes in length.

There is no fixed limit to the number of teams that will initially selected, but all teams that pass this stage will be subject to further gateway selections as outlined below.

The announcement of teams selected for stage 2 will be made on 21^st October 2022.

7.  Stage 2 – Intermediate Training & Down Select Gateways:

While the aim of stage 2 is to down-select to the final three teams to undertake the final competition, within this stage we aim to motivate and support the teams to reach a successful outcome.

Teach-ins & Familiarisation

A number of ‘teach-ins’ will also be held to familiarise teams with the simulator software and hardware set-up. Participation in the teach-ins will be mandatory and failure to participate will result in removal from the competition

Gateways

Teams will also be set tasks to prove their technical competency. Completion of these tasks will be assessed and the number of teams down-selected:

• 8 Dec 2022 – First competition gateway – Up to five teams will be selected from this gateway. Teams will have to provide a 10 minute presentation followed by a panel Q+A. Teams will be expected to give a detailed explanation of their proposed approaches to achieving the challenges and the methodologies that they intend to utilise.

The three successful teams will be selected by the end of the day (8^th Dec).

• January 2023 - The teams will be provided with simulator hardware for the start of the January academic term:
  • Autopilot ‘Spectre e-boat-T’ with GPS
  • Sensor payload (camera and proximity sensor)
  • Micro-PC onto which the team’s software can be loaded
  • Communications links
  • Licensed ‘Ship Simulator’ package to enable development of s/w functionality

Each team will be given a teaching session on the simulator hardware.

See Appendices for further details about the simulator hardware. Please note that NO modifications or additions to the provided hardware will be permitted.

• 17 March 2023 – Second competition gateway – Using the provided simulator system and hardware, teams will be required to show that they can successfully engage and control the propulsion system and control heading. Teams will also be required to show that they are able to undertake challenges 1 and 2 in the simulator environment. Navigation waypoints and the position of obstacles to be avoided will be provided on the day. Three teams will be selected from this gateway to compete in the on-water weekend.
• 5 May 2023 – Ready for competition check – Teams will be expected to demonstrate challenge 4 in a simulated environment, including use of a visualisation tool.

Mentors

• Teams who successfully make it through the December gateway will have at least one industry mentor appointed from an SMI member company, who will make regular contact with the team. The role of the mentor is to:

  ·         Check on progress

  ·         Provide guidance

  ·         Assist in obtaining any required information from the organisers

  ·         Ensuring that the team participates in the spirit of fair competition

8.   Stage 3 – On-Water Weekend:

Overview

The competition will be held on 17^th and 18^th June 2023 and will be split into five challenges (see below).

The competition venue is the Solent University Ship Handling Centre at Timsbury Lake near Romsey. Details are available at: https://www.solent.ac.uk/facilities/ship-handling-centre. A navigational map is available on the same page. There are no currents on the lake; however, while the lake is surrounded by trees, wind may have some impact

Marking will be weighted towards fully autonomous solutions versus remote operation.

USV Equipment:

Each team participating in Stage 3 will be provided with a USV comprising the following for the on-water weekend:

• Catamaran GRP hull (ca. 2m long)
• Propulsion system built into the USV. This will consist of two Blue Robotics T200 thrusters and associated electronic speed controller (ESC) providing differential steering.
• Battery for propulsion, control system, sensors etc.
• A fitted sensor and control payload that will exactly mirror that previously provided to the teams.

Teams will access the on-board Mission PC via Wi-Fi, using TeamViewer. This will give them remote control over the platform and their own software functionality in the Micro-PC onboard via the comms link modem.

Required Capabilities from the teams:

Teams will be required to develop their own software packages to make use of the designated sensor outputs, send control messages to the autopilot and use the Ship Simulator package to model the USV’s response to control commands. Teams will need to develop an ability to display information, live and historical tracks, and map data from the provided systems. Teams should not hard code details such as navigation waypoints or obstructions into their codes as these are subject to change by the organising committee.

9.          Mission Challenges:

Main Challenges:

All teams will need to undertake the following challenges. Teams may use remote control or full autonomy to undertake the challenges with scoring awarded appropriately by the judging panel. Teams will be asked to show the required capabilities including the display of live and historical tracks of the USV for each challenge.

The organisers reserve the right to amend the challenges in the light of conditions on the day.

Challenge 1: Navigate a waypoint track

The USV will be required to navigate smoothly around a loop track using a series of GPS waypoints to test manoeuvring control. The USV should pass within 1 metre of each GPS waypoint and maintain as small as possible average cross-track error.

Challenge 2: Obstacle avoidance

The USV will be required to follow a loop track (similar to challenge 1. above) and reactively avoid stationary obstructions detected by a virtual sensor. The action will be a smooth manoeuvre, which minimises deviation from the track, while passing the obstruction at a safe distance. The position of obstacles will be provided during the run, in the form of regularly updated TTM messages, with target range and bearing.

Challenge 3: Berthing

The USV will be required to approach a nominated berth from a given start point, and stop safely at the berth. A successful berthing is considered when the vessel is fully stopped in the water 1 metre from the berth and parallel. There are a number of possible berths on the site and the berth being used will be selected by the organising committee according to the prevailing conditions on the day. The judges will deduct points for impacts.

Challenge 4:  Searching for pollution.

The USV will be required to autonomously undertake a search for, and map, an area of pollution within given co-ordinates. Concentration of the pollutant at the position of the USV will be output by a virtual sensor. The pollution will be a 2-dimensional ‘plume’, which must be mapped in near real-time in order to identify the maximum values that indicate the source. It is possible that there will be localised maxima that need to be distinguished from the main maximum values.

Challenge 5:  Searching for surface ‘targets’.

The USV will be required to automatically search a specified area for a number of physical objects (e.g. rubber duck, plastic milk bottles, buoys), comprising no more than five different types. All targets must be identified and located using an algorithm to be run on the supplied hardware. Sample images of the types of object will be provided in order to train AI algorithms.

Provisional Scoring Scheme:

The overall scoring scheme is as follows:

Challenge 1               - 10

Challenge 2              - 15

Challenge 3              - 15

Challenge 4              - 30

Challenge 5              - 30

Thus, there will be a maximum of 100 points available; however, teams that do not complete a challenge autonomously will have their points reduced by 50% for that challenge. There will also be penalties for collisions with buoys and/or other objects. Exceptionally the judges may decide to award bonus points for some challenges.

Judging

Judging for stage 1 and 2 will be done by the MAChallenge organising committee. The on-water final (stage 3) will be overseen by an expert judging panel. All judges’ decisions are final.

With thanks to our supporters:

If you have any questions regarding the rules, please email MAChallenge(at)maritimeindustries.org. Alternatively, please check our FAQs Page in case your question has already been answered.