Work on Autonomous Marine Vehicle Technology at BAU

Significant gains have been achieved in autonomous and unmanned marine vehicle technology through the work carried out by our SucooteRobotics team.

Today, national unmanned aerial vehicles, which emerged as a result of the growing intensity in defense industry technologies and strategies, have laid the groundwork for technological competition in the international arena. Extending this rising national momentum to the maritime field is of great importance. Autonomous technology in marine vehicles is the subject of many articles worldwide and attracts intense interest from investors. Recently, along with the rest of the world, Türkiye has also turned its eyes to autonomous marine vehicle technology and its progress.

Autonomous Marine Vehicle R&D Work at BAU

R&D work on unmanned and autonomous marine vehicles was launched under the leadership of Bahçeşehir University student Ataberk Suekinci, and an autonomous R&D team was established under the name SucooteRobotics at the beginning of 2022. Under the supervision of BAU Head of the Department of Mechatronics Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Berke Gür, the SucooteRobotics team ranked 4th and received an award with the autonomous marine vehicle it developed in the final of the Presidency of Defense Industries ROBOİK 2022 competition. During the competition process, support such as workspace and transportation was provided by BAU Dean of Students Dr. Tuğba Kıral Özkan.

In addition to the SucooteRobotics unmanned marine vehicle, prototyped with the budget of the Presidency of Defense Industries, work on an autonomous marine vehicle capable of carrying people was also carried out under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nafiz Arıca, Dean of the BAU Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences in 2017-2022.

In addition to the R&D work in engineering, a TÜBİTAK 2209-A project titled "Investigation of the Social Impacts and Legal Dimension of Carrying People on an AI-Controlled Autonomous Marine Vehicle" is being conducted, supervised by BAU Head of the Department of Sociology Prof. Dr. Nilüfer Narlı, with Ataberk Şuekinci as project coordinator.

About the SucooteRobotics Unmanned Marine Vehicle

According to Suekinci, the autonomous marine vehicle developed within the scope of the SSB competition can be remotely controlled up to 25 km using UDP/TCP communication protocols. It transmits video in the 5.8 GHz frequency band. The catamaran-type autonomous marine vehicle is powered by twin electric motors. LiFePo4 lithium technology is used as the battery system. In the autonomous marine vehicle, which is built on a ROS (Robot Operating System)-based system, inertial sensors (IMU) and satellite positioning system (GNSS) sensors were chosen for navigation. In addition, a 3D stereo camera was used for navigation planning and collision avoidance. The software infrastructure was built on Python and is mainly based on artificial intelligence and machine learning methods.

A multidisciplinary project

The projects initiated by Ataberk Suekinci, founding team captain of SucooteRobotics, bring together researchers from different disciplines.

The 15-member team of BAU students includes researchers from the departments of mechatronics, electrical and electronics, artificial intelligence, computer and software engineering, as well as industrial design, law and sociology.