InnoCentive RTP US Navy Challenge: Autonomous Detection of Marine Mammals

Innovation challenge seeking ideas for technological solutions that support autonomous detection of Southern Resident Killer Whales and Northern Right Whales.

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This InnoCentive Reduction to Practice (RTP) Challenge – US Navy Challenge: Autonomous Detection of Marine Mammals – is seeking ideas for technological solutions that support autonomous detection of Southern Resident Killer Whales and Northern Right Whales.

The Department of Navy Northwest Tech Bridge at NUWC Division Keyport, Northeast Tech Bridge at NUWC Division Newport, Impact Washington, 401 Tech Bridge, Maritime Blue, and Quiet Sound are partnering on this prize challenge to drive development of these solutions.

This Challenge supports the first phase of a multi-stage effort aimed at producing a system possessing combined multi-sensor data streams ready for future analysis by an onboard operational decision management tool or transmission to the cloud.

The focus of the first phase is to demonstrate a hardware and communications system that will detect Killer Whales and North Atlantic Right Whales with at least one above-water sensor and one below-water sensor. Data from these sensors must be time synchronized and include – at a minimum – the vehicle position and orientation, sensor data, time-stamp, sensor settings, sensor position, and sensor orientation. While there is also potential for the technology to aid in marine mammal mitigation on commercial ships and ferries, it is not required nor expected that the demonstration would include a delivery platform (marine vessel or land vehicle).

The Navy is seeking innovative solutions to enhance real-time detection of Killer Whales or North Atlantic Right Whales or both in high vessel traffic areas. A multi-stage effort will be utilised to pursue the ultimate goal of a prototype that employs transformational technology or a combination of existing technologies to detect, classify, and display marine mammal location in real-time, allowing an autonomous vessel to take proactive measures to avoid a strike. This technology will also be applicable to manned commercial vehicles (eg, high-speed catamaran passenger ferries).