The Legal Framework for International Cooperation in Maritime Enforcement Activities. The Project will analyse the gaps in the international framework to achieve cooperation in maritime enforcement and make recommendations for improvements to existing legislative arrangements to facilitate successful combat of international maritime criminal activity.The Project is timely because it addresses some long-standing national requirements to improve Australia's ability to adequately enforce its sovere ....The Legal Framework for International Cooperation in Maritime Enforcement Activities. The Project will analyse the gaps in the international framework to achieve cooperation in maritime enforcement and make recommendations for improvements to existing legislative arrangements to facilitate successful combat of international maritime criminal activity.The Project is timely because it addresses some long-standing national requirements to improve Australia's ability to adequately enforce its sovereign rights throughout its maritime zones of jurisdiction. The issues involved have taken on a greater contemporary significance in light of recent events, including the surge in illegal people smuggling into Australia, increased illegal fishing activity in Australia's Southern Ocean exclusive economic zone by highly organized criminal syndicates and heightened tensions with regard to maritime terrorism.
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New Generation Lead-free Piezoelectric Ceramics for Acoustic Sensor Technologies. Cooperative research between University of NSW and Thales Australia to design new Lead-free piezoceramics is of critical importance to Australia's strategic leadership in underwater acoustic technology. This area has been identified by the Department of Defence to be a critical defence capability and essential to Australia's exploration of oil, gas, and minerals. Improved and new transducer components will provide ....New Generation Lead-free Piezoelectric Ceramics for Acoustic Sensor Technologies. Cooperative research between University of NSW and Thales Australia to design new Lead-free piezoceramics is of critical importance to Australia's strategic leadership in underwater acoustic technology. This area has been identified by the Department of Defence to be a critical defence capability and essential to Australia's exploration of oil, gas, and minerals. Improved and new transducer components will provide significant economic benefit to Australia through increased export of sonar technology, particularly to Europe and all Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) compliant countries. The project will produce highly skilled graduates ensuring an on-going basis for Australia's future innovation in this area.Read moreRead less
Automated helicopter hover and recovery system for operations at sea. The small size and simplicity of the integrated system outlined in this project will significantly improve the effectiveness of maritime surveillance for homeland security whilst enabling substantially lower operational costs. The proposal aims to develop control and sensing techniques, enabling small rotary wing unmanned air-vehicles (UAVs) weighing less than 100 kgs to operate from small-size vessels. This will be achieved ....Automated helicopter hover and recovery system for operations at sea. The small size and simplicity of the integrated system outlined in this project will significantly improve the effectiveness of maritime surveillance for homeland security whilst enabling substantially lower operational costs. The proposal aims to develop control and sensing techniques, enabling small rotary wing unmanned air-vehicles (UAVs) weighing less than 100 kgs to operate from small-size vessels. This will be achieved by resolving the current lack of integration between ship motion and the unmanned vehicle guidance systems. The proposed research will make substantial contributions in areas of ship motion prediction and sensing and hover control of tethered and non-tethered small helicopters.
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Supervised autonomy for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) using limited bandwidth communication channels. The project aims to improve the feedback link between an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and an operator by developing novel acoustic communication schemes that exploit developments in machine learning, network, and communication theory and represents a step towards truly autonomous and intelligent surveying using AUV systems.
Vision Based Guidance, Navigation and Control of a Tail-Sitter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The development of a high precision visual guidance system for vertical takeoff and landing UAVs will significantly enhance their operational effectiveness by allowing them to land accurately on the back of small vessels or in confined clearings. Together with the extra navigation-system redundancy vis-a-vis GPS system failure and the ability to self-identify reasonable emergency landing sites, the proposed v ....Vision Based Guidance, Navigation and Control of a Tail-Sitter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The development of a high precision visual guidance system for vertical takeoff and landing UAVs will significantly enhance their operational effectiveness by allowing them to land accurately on the back of small vessels or in confined clearings. Together with the extra navigation-system redundancy vis-a-vis GPS system failure and the ability to self-identify reasonable emergency landing sites, the proposed vision-based system represents a significant capability improvement over what is currently available. It will thus enhance the ability of defence and civil-defence units to patrol Australian borders effectively and to react to threats. It will also have significant export potential to allied nations.Read moreRead less
Interferometric Distributed Feedback Fibre Laser Sensors. This project will solve important problems in realising next generation underwater optical fibre sensor systems for defence and marine exploration. OFTC's expertise in specialty optical fibre and devices will be combined with Thales' expertise in underwater sensor systems to give Australia a global lead. The benefits are commercial, national security and research standing. Domestic manufacture of a major optical system will assist maturat ....Interferometric Distributed Feedback Fibre Laser Sensors. This project will solve important problems in realising next generation underwater optical fibre sensor systems for defence and marine exploration. OFTC's expertise in specialty optical fibre and devices will be combined with Thales' expertise in underwater sensor systems to give Australia a global lead. The benefits are commercial, national security and research standing. Domestic manufacture of a major optical system will assist maturation of the sector which is dominated by component companies. This system for underwater surveillance is obviously important to a country with a large coastline to defend. This project will build Australia's global reputation renowned for research excellence in fibre and fibre devices.Read moreRead less
Environment modelling of Great Barrier Reef habitats using Autonomous Transect Surveying. This project has as its goal the development of algorithms and methods capable of modeling unstructured, reef environments using data collected by an autonomous robotic system capable of surveying the Great Barrier Reef. The Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) currently has a small research Umanned Underwater Vehicle capable of undertaking such survey work. Under the proposed project, this vehicle ....Environment modelling of Great Barrier Reef habitats using Autonomous Transect Surveying. This project has as its goal the development of algorithms and methods capable of modeling unstructured, reef environments using data collected by an autonomous robotic system capable of surveying the Great Barrier Reef. The Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) currently has a small research Umanned Underwater Vehicle capable of undertaking such survey work. Under the proposed project, this vehicle will be equipped with appropriate sensors (such as vision systems, sonar, depth and temperature sensors). The proposed grant will support an APA (I) whose aim will be the construction of comprehensive models of the state of the reef over which the vehicle will operate.Read moreRead less
Deterioration of structural integrity of ageing ships and marine platforms. Deterioration of structural integrity of ageing ships and marine platforms. This project will research the deterioration of structural integrity and remaining life of marine assets such as ships and offshore energy facilities, by integrating structural response analysis methods with aged-structure assessment techniques. Maritime assets exposed to ocean conditions suffer from time dependent phenomena, which reduce structu ....Deterioration of structural integrity of ageing ships and marine platforms. Deterioration of structural integrity of ageing ships and marine platforms. This project will research the deterioration of structural integrity and remaining life of marine assets such as ships and offshore energy facilities, by integrating structural response analysis methods with aged-structure assessment techniques. Maritime assets exposed to ocean conditions suffer from time dependent phenomena, which reduce structural capability, affect safety and could have catastrophic environmental and economic consequences. Making assets available and affordably safe is a problem for operators. The key to prolonging asset life is in understanding the interrelationships over time between the asset’s structural condition and its use. Anticipated outcomes are superior safety, expected lifetime and economic benefits of maritime assets.Read moreRead less
Ship response under corrosion, fatigue and complex sea-state environments. This project will improve understanding of the gradual deterioration of ships and maritime structures subject to metal corrosion, fatigue and extreme sea-state conditions. Increasingly such understanding is necessary for optimal asset management decisions. These include the potential economic, personnel and other risks involved for ship owners and operators, including the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The project will use ....Ship response under corrosion, fatigue and complex sea-state environments. This project will improve understanding of the gradual deterioration of ships and maritime structures subject to metal corrosion, fatigue and extreme sea-state conditions. Increasingly such understanding is necessary for optimal asset management decisions. These include the potential economic, personnel and other risks involved for ship owners and operators, including the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The project will use numerical simulation. It will tackle the Fluid-Structure Interaction problem of ships in waves by integrating Finite Element structural response analysis with cutting-edge Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics methods. The outcomes will provide new insight into remaining asset life and for exploring optimal maintenance strategiesRead moreRead less
Optimal acoustic design of a composite marine propeller for signature management. Noise of maritime vessels affects passengers, crew and marine life. Composite marine propellers provide significant benefits over metallic propellers as they run more efficiently, thus consuming less fuel and run more smoothly, resulting in improved comfort for passengers and crew. From a military perspective, composite marine propellers provide reduced noise signature, resulting in vessels of greater stealth. Quie ....Optimal acoustic design of a composite marine propeller for signature management. Noise of maritime vessels affects passengers, crew and marine life. Composite marine propellers provide significant benefits over metallic propellers as they run more efficiently, thus consuming less fuel and run more smoothly, resulting in improved comfort for passengers and crew. From a military perspective, composite marine propellers provide reduced noise signature, resulting in vessels of greater stealth. Quieter propellers also significantly reduce the environmental impact of ships on marine life. This project will generate a new class of quiet composite propellers to be utilised by the maritime industry. The technologies developed by this project are applicable to rotors in other industries, such as aircraft, helicopters and wind turbines.Read moreRead less