The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has awarded funding to Rolls-Royce for the development of autonomous naval technology.

According to an article on The Engineer, the funding will be used to further develop Rolls Royce’s Artificial Chief Engineer technology – a control system aboard its naval vessels that aims to minimise human interaction when carrying out high-risk missions.

This technology uses algorithms to make condition-based decisions to increase the efficiency of vessels. These decisions include how to manage its fuel systems and engines to an optimum standard. 

“Our involvement in this funding programme certainly strengthens our position with the UK MOD for Unmanned Surface Vessel enablers,” said Ben Thorp who is the Programme Executive for Naval Electrical, Automation and Controls at Rolls-Royce Defence.

“This funding will also increase the technical maturity of Artificial Chief Engineer for further applications across the breadth of the marine market, both Naval and Commercial where we are seeing increasing levels of demand for this type of technology.”

This is funding that has been granted by the MOD’s Defence and Security Accelerator Intelligent Ship Phase Two programme. During this 16-month programme, the collaboration between humans and AI will be analysed as to how it can be deployed best.