About the project
Investigate how drones operated by artificial intelligence can improve their performance and reduce maritime emissions.
Societies are using autonomous vehicles for more and more operations. The UK sends autonomous drones to police the breaking of legislation on shipping emissions. These drones need to decide how to act must effectively.
The drones can:
- try to examine as many vessels as possible
- target those that are most likely to be polluters
- gather data to improve their future predictions
As a PhD researcher, you’d develop an approach to AI probabilistic decision making. This should allow a drone with limited range and computational power to exploit new knowledge and maximise its efficiency. In this way, the drones could maximise the number of positive emissions tests at sea over time, rather than looking for quick wins.
This work would help reduce pollution from nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide. It may also have a wider impact, such as helping to better search for gas leaks or map the seabed.