The U.S. Navy is currently working on a new tool for protecting its ships, which is a "swarm" of robotic boats.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) conducted tests in August on "drone" boats designed to swarm ships that are a threat to the Navy's vessels, according to CNN. A video was recently released showing the boats surrounding a vessel, with the service saying "The U.S. Navy is unleashing a new era in advanced ship protection."
The Navy uses its Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing (CARACaS) to control the boats. CARACaS comes as a sensor combined with a software kit, and can be transferred among small ships. The video shows a fleet of over a dozen unmanned boats moving along the James River in Virginia and organizing themselves to protect a Navy research vessel.
These robot boats provide the potential for the U.S. and other countries to defend themselves and attack enemies with robotic technology that operates underwater, on land, or in the air, Discovery News reported.
"What's new about the James River test was having five USVs [unmanned surface vessels] operating together with no humans on board," said Robert Brizzolara, program manager for the ONR.
One of the boats' developers compared them to "guard dogs" that would surround a warship and find threats before they can strike. Thanks to their software, the boats can also pick the route for each of them to confront vessels, which gives them the ability to think for themselves, CNN reported.
The Navy believes the boats have a range of potential uses, such as protecting ports in the U.S. as well as preventing situations like the terrorist attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen, which took place 14 years ago and resulted in the death of 17 American sailors. These attacks could be prevented without risking the lives of U.S. sailors.
"While the attack on Cole was not the only motivation for developing autonomous swarm capability, it certainly is front and center in our minds, and hearts," said Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, chief of naval research. "If Cole had been supported by autonomous USVs, they could have stopped that attack long before it got close to our brave men and women on board."
There is currently no set due date for when the Navy plans to begin using the robot swarms, as the ONR is looking to make improvements to the boats' autonomous system and navigation beforehand, Discovery News reported. These improvements include having the boats use different sensing technologies to "see" objects around them, as well as making them able to move autonomously around vehicles in different situations.
However, human sailors will still have control over whether the boats should fire against enemy vessels.
The success of the ONR's test with the boats presents a great possibility for the swarms to be in use soon, CNN reported. ONR spokesman Peter Vietti said on Monday that the Navy could begin operational tests for the boats within the next year.
