This thesis presents the design and development of a fully autonomous surface vessel for use as a research platform for the Office of Naval Research and as a competition entry to the International Maritime RobotX Challenge in 2014 and 2016. The author’s contributions to this include the development of safety systems, power distribution systems, communications software, tasking software, and planning algorithms. The results of these developments include a hardware based safety system, a modular power and health monitoring system, an easy to use autoconfiguring inter-process communications stack, a dynamic tasking engine, and a comparison of two solutions to planning with a kinodynamically constrained vehicle. Several recommendations are made for future work including combining the two planning algorithms and expanding the tasking framework to include multiple vehicles.
","abstract_html":"<p>This thesis presents the design and development of a fully autonomous surface vessel for use as a research platform for the Office of Naval Research and as a competition entry to the International Maritime RobotX Challenge in 2014 and 2016. The author’s contributions to this include the development of safety systems, power distribution systems, communications software, tasking software, and planning algorithms. The results of these developments include a hardware based safety system, a modular power and health monitoring system, an easy to use autoconfiguring inter-process communications stack, a dynamic tasking engine, and a comparison of two solutions to planning with a kinodynamically constrained vehicle. Several recommendations are made for future work including combining the two planning algorithms and expanding the tasking framework to include multiple vehicles.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Zuercher, Timothy"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering","degree_level":"Thesis - Open Access","degree_discipline":"Mechanical Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-11-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2017-11-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:25:52Z","subjects":["mission tasking","path planning","system integration","autonomous surface vessels","Mechanical Engineering","Ocean Engineering"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.erau.edu/edt/392","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Zuercher, Timothy"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Mechanical Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis - Open Access"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["mission tasking","path planning","system integration","autonomous surface vessels","Mechanical Engineering","Ocean Engineering"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.erau.edu/edt/392"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This thesis presents the design and development of a fully autonomous surface vessel for use as a research platform for the Office of Naval Research and as a competition entry to the International Maritime RobotX Challenge in 2014 and 2016. The author’s contributions to this include the development of safety systems, power distribution systems, communications software, tasking software, and planning algorithms. The results of these developments include a hardware based safety system, a modular power and health monitoring system, an easy to use autoconfiguring inter-process communications stack, a dynamic tasking engine, and a comparison of two solutions to planning with a kinodynamically constrained vehicle. Several recommendations are made for future work including combining the two planning algorithms and expanding the tasking framework to include multiple vehicles.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Mission Tasking, Path Planning, and System Integration for an Autonomous Surface Vessel"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Zuercher, Timothy"],"dc:description.abstract":["This thesis presents the design and development of a fully autonomous surface vessel for use as a research platform for the Office of Naval Research and as a competition entry to the International Maritime RobotX Challenge in 2014 and 2016. The author’s contributions to this include the development of safety systems, power distribution systems, communications software, tasking software, and planning algorithms. The results of these developments include a hardware based safety system, a modular power and health monitoring system, an easy to use autoconfiguring inter-process communications stack, a dynamic tasking engine, and a comparison of two solutions to planning with a kinodynamically constrained vehicle. Several recommendations are made for future work including combining the two planning algorithms and expanding the tasking framework to include multiple vehicles.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.erau.edu/edt/392"],"dc:subject":["mission tasking","path planning","system integration","autonomous surface vessels","Mechanical Engineering","Ocean Engineering"],"dc:title":["Mission Tasking, Path Planning, and System Integration for an Autonomous Surface Vessel"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Mechanical Engineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis - Open Access"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:25:52Z"}