My thesis work is focused on developing software applications for autonomous control of icebreaking vessels. Key goals of the project is navigation of ice fields, channel grooming, and ice rescue/escort behavior.

The videos to the right and below shows initial development of this project. Using the MOOS-IvP autonomy project as a basis, a developed app runs D* lite algorithm to find a path through the simulated ice field. As new ice obstacles enter the ship’s view radius, the path replans to ensure it continues to be resolution optimal.

Further developments are focused on improving the fidelity of the simulator to realistically handle ice-ship interactions, and introduce multi-ship mission coordination.