Robust design is an activity of fundamental importance when designing large, complex, one-off engineering products. Work is described which is concerned with the application of the theory of design of experiments and stochastic optimization methods to explore and optimize at the concept design stage. The discussion begins with a description of state-of-the-art stochastic techniques and their ap...

This paper presents an initial study of the autopilot development of an unmanned surface vehicle (USV). The USV named Springer is being developed to carry out pollutant tracking, and environmental and hydrographic surveys in rivers, reservoirs, inland waterways and coastal waters, particularly where shallow waters prevail. The catamaran shaped autonomous vessel is modelled as a two input, singl...

Recent experimental testing of an unmanned autonomous marine surface vehicle has demonstrated several key advances in control system performance for a wind propelled platform. The HWT X-1 is a winged catamaran based on a modi…ed conventional sailing vessel intended for use as a surveillance and sensor platform in either littoral or unprotected waters. Using GPS and an o¤the-shelf commercial Att...