ASTM International Committee F41 on Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Systems invites all interested parties to participate in a new task group, F41.90.01 on Unmanned Surface Vehicles. With the addition of this new task group, the name of Committee F41 will be changed to Unmanned Maritime Systems.
 
Task Group F41.90.01 is seeking new members with expertise in unmanned surface vehicles to complement the existing membership of Committee F41. The task group plans on striking a balance between academia, industry and governmental stakeholders.
 
According to Chris Hillenbrand, chair of F41.90.01, the five areas in which the task group is in need of leadership participation are autonomy and control, communications, data formats, payloads and maritime regulations. “All participants will greatly benefit the advancement and interoperability of unmanned maritime systems,” says Hillenbrand. “Participants will also have an active role in shaping the development and commonality of these standards and will be among the first to receive standards updates.”
 
The goal of Committee F41 is to develop open system standards for unmanned maritime systems. While the emphasis of the committee is on the commonality of these systems, it does recognize that each type of unmanned system will have unique requirements.

For technical information, contact Chris F. Hillenbrand (Chair-USV Standards Sub-Committee), Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Newport, Newport, R.I. (phone: 401/832-2650; HillenbrandCF@npt.nuwc.navy.mil); or Kevin Bowen (Vice-Chair-USV Standards Subcommittee), Raytheon Integrated Defense, Portsmouth, R.I. (phone: 401/842-4895; Kevin_P_Bowen@ratheon.com). Committee F41 meets Aug. 8, 2007, in conjunction with the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s Unmanned Systems North America 2007 Conference. For membership or meeting information, contact Daniel Schultz, manager, Technical Committee Operations, ASTM International (phone: 610/832-9716; dschultz@astm.org).

Release #7633