On 20 April Mark Garnier, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of International Trade, opened an advanced Mission Control Centre created by ASV Global, a leading autonomous vessel technology developer, at its headquarters in Portchester, Hampshire. This new centre will be the hub for the company’s ongoing development of its market leading ASView® autonomous vessel control system. Not only will the centre be capable of operating and monitoring the company’s fleet of ASVs throughout the world using satellite communications but will also be used for operator training and simulation exercises.

Furthermore, the centre has been partly funded under Innovate UK funding awarded to the company in 2015 under a project called Unmanned Safe Maritime Operations Over The Horizon which tasked ASV Global’s team of autonomous system engineers to research and develop both the technology and the regulatory requirements of operating autonomous vessels over the horizon.