Decision making

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10613535-B2
Application number	US-201615579331-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 27, 2016
Priority date	Jun 4, 2015
Publication date	Apr 7, 2020
Grant date	Apr 7, 2020

Abstract

Disclosed is a system and method for facilitating decision making on a watercraft (100). The system comprises one or more processors (102) configured to: acquire environmental data comprising measurements of one or more parameters of an environment in a locality of the watercraft (100); provide a plurality of digital models, each digital model modelling an effect of the environment on a respective capability of the watercraft (100), each capability of the watercraft (100) being assigned to one or more actions, each action being performable by the watercraft (100) or an entity on the watercraft (100); using the environmental data and the digital models, model an effect of the environment on the capabilities of the watercraft (100); receive a selection of an action; and, using outputs of each digital model that models a capability that is assigned to the selected action, determine a risk assessment for the selected action.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for facilitating decision making on a watercraft, the system comprising:
one or more processors configured to
acquire environmental data, the environmental data comprising measurements of one or more parameters of an environment in a locality of the watercraft;
provide a plurality of digital models, each digital model modelling an effect of the environment on a respective capability of the watercraft, each capability of the watercraft being assigned to one or more actions, each action being performable by the watercraft or an entity on the watercraft;
using the environmental data and the digital models, model an effect of the environment on the capabilities of the watercraft;
cause display, via a user interface, of a list of actions;
receive a selection, via the user interface, of an action included in the list of actions;
using outputs of each digital model that models a capability that is assigned to the selected action, determine a risk assessment for the selected action; and
cause display, via the user interface, of the determined risk assessment.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the environmental data includes current measurements of the one or more parameters of the environment, and the one or more processors are configured to:
using the current environmental data, model an effect of the current environment on the capabilities of the watercraft; and
using outputs of each digital model that models a capability that is assigned to the selected action, determine a risk assessment for the performance of the selected action at a current time.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the environmental data includes predicted measurements of one or more parameters of the environment for one or more future time-steps, and the one or more processors are configured to:
using the environmental data, model an effect of the environment on the capabilities of the watercraft at each future time-step; and
using outputs of each digital model that models a capability that is assigned to the selected action, determine a risk assessment for the performance of the selected action at each future time-step.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the environmental data includes current measurements of the one or more parameters of the environment at one or more different locations, each different location being remote from the locality of the watercraft, and the one or more processors are configured to:
using the environmental data, model an effect of the environment on the capabilities of the watercraft at each different location; and
using outputs of each digital model that models a capability that is assigned to the selected action, determine a risk assessment for the performance of the selected action at each of the different locations.

5. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to, within a time period:
continually acquire the environmental data; and
using the continually acquired environmental data and the digital models, continually model the effects of the environment on the capabilities of the watercraft.

6. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are wholly located on or in the watercraft.

7. The system according to claim 1 , the system further comprising one or more sensors for deployment on or in the watercraft, the one or more sensors being configured to measure the environmental data.

8. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the environmental data includes measurements of one or more parameters selected from the group of parameters consisting of: a temperature of a body of water on or in which the watercraft is operating, a salinity of a body of water on or in which the watercraft is operating, a speed of sound in of a body of water on or in which the watercraft is operating, a speed of the body of water, a flow direction of the body of water, a swell of the body of water, a wave period of the body of water, a temperature of air in which the watercraft is operating, wind speed, and wind direction.

9. The system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more processors are further configured to acquire navigational data for watercraft; and
modelling the effect of the environment on the capabilities of the watercraft includes using the acquired navigational data.

10. The system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the watercraft includes a vehicle configured to be launched from the watercraft; and
the action is an action to launch the vehicle from the watercraft.

11. The system according to claim 10 , wherein the capabilities of the watercraft include one or more capabilities selected from the group of capabilities consisting of: recovering the vehicle after launch, communicating with the vehicle, and controlling the vehicle.

12. A method for facilitating decision making on a watercraft, the method comprising:
acquiring, by one or more processors, environmental data, the environmental data comprising measurements of one or more parameters of an environment in a locality of the watercraft;
providing a plurality of digital models, each digital model modelling an effect of the environment on a respective capability of the watercraft, each capability of the watercraft being assigned to one or more actions, each action being performable by the watercraft or an entity on the watercraft;
using the environmental data and the digital models, modelling, by the one or more processors, an effect of the environment on the capabilities of the watercraft;
receiving, via a user interface, a selection of an action from a list of displayed actions; and
using outputs of each digital model that models a capability that is assigned to the selected action, determining, by the one or more processors, a risk assessment for the selected action.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the watercraft includes a vehicle configured to be launched from the watercraft, and
the environmental data includes measurements of one or more parameters selected from the group of parameters consisting of a temperature of a body of water on or in which the watercraft is operating, a salinity of a body of water on or in which the watercraft is operating, a speed of sound in of a body of water on or in which the watercraft is operating, a speed of the body of water, a flow direction of the body of water, a swell of the body of water, a wave period of the body of water, a temperature of air in which the watercraft is operating, wind speed, and wind direction;
the action is an action to launch the vehicle from the watercraft; and
the capabilities of the watercraft include one or more capabilities selected from the group of capabilities consisting of: recovering the vehicle after launch, communicating with the vehicle, and controlling the vehicle.

14. A computer program product including one or more non-transistor machine readable mediums encoding instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause a process to be carried out for facilitating decision making on a watercraft, the process comprising:
acquiring environmental data, the environmental data comprising measurements of one or more parameters of an environment in a locality of the watercraft;
providing a plurality of digital models, each digital model modelling an effect of the environment on a respective capability of the watercraft, each capability of the watercraft being assigned to one or more actions, each action being performable by the watercraft or an entity on the watercraft;
using the environmental data and the digital models, modelling

Assignees

• Bae Systems Plc

Inventors

• Reeve Matthew James

Classifications

• G06N5/046

  Forward inferencing; Production systems · CPC title

• B63B35/40

  for transporting marine vessels {(load accommodation for floating barges and the like B63B25/006)} · CPC title

• B63B2035/007

  autonomously operating · CPC title

• G06Q10/0635 Primary

  Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities · CPC title

• G05D1/0206 Primary

  specially adapted to water vehicles · CPC title