Session: 06-11-01 Ocean Engineering Technology

Submission Number: 155401

MilliAmpere1 Autonomous Ferry Prototype: Hardware and Software 

Autonomous electrical ferries have gained significant attention in recent years, with notable advancements in passenger transportation on short routes in Scandinavian countries. This paper presents the hardware and software onboard the milliAmpere (mA1) autonomous ferry prototype. The mA1 is a small ferry prototype utilized as a test platform for several research projects at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) [1]. The mA1 is equipped with situational awareness, guidance, navigation, and control systems, enabling it to perform autonomous transportation and docking. The hardware onboard the mA1 is divided into several subsystems: (1) The propulsion system, composed of four azimuthal electric thrusters connected to a CANbus network, enabling reliable and fast-response operation. (2) The guidance and navigation system, consisting of a GNSS station receiver with RTK-GPS and an IMU. (3) The power supply system, composed of eight marine VARTA lithium batteries that supply power to the entire system, including 24 V DC and 220 V AC outputs. (4) The OBC control and monitoring system, which includes an industrial computer and a display running a graphical user interface developed in ROS, allowing for monitoring, logging of system variables. (5) The situational awareness system, which features a LiDAR, five EO and five IR cameras, and a maritime radar for obstacle detection. Additionally, the mA1 is equipped with an emergency stop and a joystick controller to ensure the safe operation of the boat. Preliminary full-scale experimental were carried out at Trondheim, Norway to assess the performance of the hardware and software. From these experiments, the functionality and real-time operation of all systems were confirmed.

[1] Brekke, Edmund F., Egil Eide, Bjørn-Olav H. Eriksen, Erik F. Wilthil, Morten Breivik, Even Skjellaug, Øystein K. Helgesen et al. "milliAmpere: an autonomous ferry prototype." In Journal of Physics: Conference Series, vol. 2311, no. 1, p. 012029. IOP Publishing, 2022.

Presenting Author: Miguel Hinostroza Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Presenting Author Biography: Miguel Hinostroza a researcher at the the Department of Engineering Cybernetics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway.He has been involved in design and operation of marine and ground autonomous vehicles, focusing on motion planning, guidance and control systems. He also has participate in full-scale experiments and model tests with autonomous robots.