NPS Students Take Top Honors In NavalX Challenge by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class James Norket
November 12, 2021
A field of 200 participants from across the
Navy stepped forward to be a force for innovation in the sea
services through the NavalX Agility Summit Challenge, part of
NaxalX’s annual Agility Summit.
The Office of Naval Research
(ONR) and NavalX partnered with the Naval Junior Officer Counsel
(NJOC) to design and execute the 2021 Agility Summit Challenge, a
two-month long sprint to crowdsource innovative ideas from the
deckplates in response to four key challenge areas directly
supporting the Department of the Navy’s Unmanned Campaign Framework
… Operator Experience, Operator Training, Logistics Support, and
Common Data Standards.
Overall, the core purpose of this year’s
challenge is to gather, present and refine ideas, methods and
capabilities that will contribute to making unmanned systems a
trusted and sustainable part of the Naval force.
As a hub of
Naval research and innovation, with a community of naval
officers/graduate students who understand fleet challenges and are
actively researching innovative ways to solve them, it’s no wonder
four of the six Agility Summit Challenge finalist teams were from
the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS).
The final round of the
NavalX Challenge was held Sept. 14-17, 2021 in person in Virginia
and virtually around the Fleet, with the final presentations
broadcast live via NavalX’s YouTube channel. These final few days
were the culmination of a lot of hard work … Two months of idea
sourcing leading up to the live summit event where top challengers
from the first stage participated in several pitch-developing
rehearsals.
September 16, 2021 - NPS mechanical engineering student Lt. Sam Royster presents his pitch on underwater ship-cleaning robots during the NavalX Agility Summit Challenge. One of four NPS teams in the finals, Royster took the spot in the competition as has been presented with a research award of $100,000 to further refine his idea. (Courtesy photo by Naval Postgraduate School)
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The event culminated in a final pitch
presentation that was judged by a distinguished panel of future
force leaders, including Dr. Rich Carlin, Office of Naval Research,
Director of Naval Accelerator (Code 36); Rear Adm. William Byrne,
Director of Warfighting Development (OPNAV N7B/72); Brig. Gen.
Benjamin Watson, Commander of USMC Warfighting Laboratory and Vice
Chief of Naval Research (VCNR); and, Mr. Craig Sawyer, Deputy Lead
for the Naval Unmanned Campaign and S&T Advisor (OPNAV N9IZ).
Competitors from NPS included a team of computer science
students, Lts. Christopher Britt and Andre Leon; a team of
international students from Greece including Capt. Nikolaos Vidalis,
Capt. Antonis Varvasoudis, and Capt. Georgios Andrianopoulus; and a
student/faculty team featuring Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Knapp and Dr.
Aurelio Monarrez.
When the dust settled, it was the fourth
NPS team, a solo student force of one from the university’s
mechanical engineering program, U.S. Navy Lt. Sam Royster, who took
top honors in the Agility Summit Challenge competition. While
pursuing his mechanical engineering degree, Royster’s focus on
robotic controls and total ship systems engineering led his research
toward developing a 21st century solution to marine biofouling
management. He’s exploring innovative methods of cleaning algae and
barnacles off ship hulls to make them more fuel efficient when
underway, and reduce their maintenance burden during in-port
periods.
It was this research that he pitched to the
Logistics Support portion of the Agility Summit Challenge, which
focused on using autonomy to ease the burden on supply chains.
“One of the most effective ways of easing that burden is to
reduce the amount of supplies needed in the first place,” explained
Royster. “Experts have estimated that a 10-20 percent increase in
ship fuel efficiency could be achieved if hull fouling levels were
kept to a minimum, which would facilitate an extension of underway
replenishment timelines, easing the burden the fuel supply chain.”
Royster likened the challenge of marine biofouling to playing
golf on a course that hasn’t been mowed in months. The longer you
put it off, the worse it gets and the harder it is to get the course
into playing shape.
“The same paradigm exists in the realm
of hull husbandry,” he said. “If we changed the way we clean our
ships so that it happens every week or two instead of once or twice
a year, we could save fuel, reduce our environmental impact, and
extend the useful life of our hull coatings by up to two years. This
innovative hull husbandry CONOPS could be enabled by ‘Roomba-like’
autonomous underwater vehicles that remove marine biofouling when it
is just a soft slime layer, and it could ultimately reduce the
number of drydocks needed to support our growing and aging fleet,
and free up our highly trained divers to perform more emergent
repair and salvage work.”
Royster credits his thesis advisor,
Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Research Asst.
Professor Jake Didoszak, for helping him refine his research ideas
into a cohesive and impactful project. Didoszak is a retired Surface
Warfare Officer currently serving as in Engineering Duty Officer in
the Naval Reserves. He completed his master and Ph.D. degrees at NPS
and currently manages the university’s Total Ship Systems
Engineering program.
As a result of his win and the
subsequent research award of $100,000 to further pursue the work,
Royster and Didoszak are currently exploring partnerships with the
Naval Research Enterprise on appropriate next steps.
“There
are some exciting possibilities to move autonomous hull husbandry
and proactive grooming closer to a fleet reality with this funding,”
Royster stated. “Professor Didoszak and I are looking at either
conducting a proof of concept, temperature-based grooming frequency
study that will build off of my thesis research, or working with a
leader and existing ONR partner in the field of autonomous hull
husbandry to further refine the vehicle and brush design to operate
on unique U.S. Navy warship geometries and surfaces.”
“From
the characterization of material performance in hull coatings
exposed to varied ocean biome, to the modeling of mechanics involved
in cleaning uniquely shaped hull surfaces, the marine environment
brings many interesting interdisciplinary challenges,” added
Didoszak. “This award provides further opportunities for NPS
engineering students like Lt. Royster to team with leading
researchers in further developing innovative concepts like his for
the application of autonomy in tackling Navy relevant challenges
such as those in ships husbandry.”
As a campus that supports
and fosters innovative thought in its students, it’s no surprise
that NPS had such a strong showing in the final round. Royster’s
idea to utilize unmanned systems to eliminate biofouling did not
begin with the NavalX Challenge. Rather, it began last fall in the
university’s Innovation Leadership course taught by Dr. Peter
Denning and retired Marine Corps Col. Todd Lyons. Royster also had
the advantage of further refining this idea and his pitch by
participating in NPS’ annual Big Ideas Exchange (BIX) this past
Spring. The BIX is an annual event showcasing select innovative
ideas of merit developed by university students as they explore
critical issues within the sea services.
Royster actively
credits the course, the coaching, and the BIX with putting him into
a position of competitiveness to eventually win the NavalX Challenge
championship.
“The course and BIX are having a high impact
because we can produce leaders like Sam [Royster] who are making a
difference for the Navy,” said Denning. “Many other graduates of our
program have gone on to be innovation leaders as well … In other
words, not only is Sam making a big impact, NPS’ education program
in innovation leadership is having a big impact by developing
leaders like Sam across the DOD.”
“Participating in the Big
Ideas Exchange was essential in that it taught me how to give an
effective pitch,” he said. “So when I heard about the opportunity to
pitch my idea to a different audience at the Agility Summit and
potentially win research money, I was all in.”
Royster said
the best part about NPS is the freedom it provides students to
pursue solutions to key challenges they see in the operational
Fleet.
“My experience at NPS has been great,” he said. “I’ve
enjoyed the autonomy to pick my classes and focus on things that not
only interest me but also make real improvements in the Navy …
Coming here and being able to focus on my education for the last two
years has been an awesome opportunity.”
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