Industry Call - Augmented Reality For Maritime Navigation and Situational Awareness Enhancement

The Royal Navy (RN) is aware of the exciting potential of Augmented Reality (AR) systems in support of many areas of its activity. This Industry Call relates specifically to the use of AR in support of bridge activity and navigation operations.

The RN seeks to enhance its understanding of AR systems and their ability to afford the Officer of the Watch, and other bridge watchkeepers, greater access to multiple information sources with the aim to increase their capability and contribute to risk reduction. The systems need to be sufficiently robust and unobtrusive to fit within the busy bridge environment.

For Industry Partners with proposed solutions at a high Technology Readiness Level (TRL 7+ see Annex B) the RN would like to offer the opportunity for an equipment demonstration onboard an alongside RN platform in Q1 21. Industry will be required to self-fund all aspects of this opportunity.

This Industry Call is not a bidding opportunity; the purpose of this demonstration is to inform the RN of the landscape of applicable bridge AR, and any subsequent procurement activity would be conducted competitively. This opportunity will not just improve the RN's understanding of AR systems, but should represent a benefit to Industry as a forum where equipment is placed into the hands of the user allowing Industry Partners to gain feedback from that audience.

It is anticipated that proposed solutions may include, but are not limited to, features such as: chart overlays; landmark and vessel identification; pilotage support; multiple-display monitoring and data / video feed access such as that from flight deck cameras. Such features will deliver increased situational awareness and improved decision-making ability to the watchkeeper who is mobile across the bridge environment.

The RN is also interested in potential solutions for weapons direction. For the demonstration, the equipment solution should ideally be stand alone, i.e. without connection to ship's systems.

Proposals requiring feeds from ship's systems will be assessed on a case by case basis. See RFI for details on how to apply