Navigation of Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) for missions during all weather and time of day conditions is challenging due to the need for robust sensing that is fully integrated into the autonomous control system. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has requested that JPL design, integrate and test a Day/Night Hazard Avoidance System (DNHAS) for autonomous navigation of a designated USV under daylight and nighttime operating conditions. The new sensing system for this project is based on a previously designed wide baseline, high-resolution stereo system that has been used on US Navy USVs for the last six years. The new system uses higher resolution cameras for a greater look-ahead distance, coupled with stereo infrared and color cameras for the operation during nighttime. The autonomous control system on the unmanned boats is the Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing (CARACaS) that has been extensively tested on US Navy USVs and Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) over the last eight years. The new sensing and behavior systems will be tested on the water using boats provided by the US Navy.
