Maritime Informatics & Robotics Summer School – 2025

🚤 Autonomous Surface Vessel Programming with Python, DroneKit, MQTT, and ArduPilot during the Maritime Informatics & Robotics Summer School.

📚 Overview

This repository accompanies the Maritime Informatics & Robotics Summer School 2025, hosted by the Intelligent Transportation Systems Lab (Smart MOVE) at the University of the Aegean, Syros. It offers a hands-on, progressive curriculum for building, programming, and testing autonomous maritime robots using cutting-edge technologies in a real-world maritime environment.

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🎯 Mission & Objectives

The summer school and labs aim to:

• Advance smart mobility through applied informatics and robotics.
• Provide practical, experiential learning with real-world marine data.
• Train the next generation of maritime technology professionals.
• Support industry-academic collaboration through innovation.
• Contribute solutions to the challenges of autonomous marine systems.

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🧭 Courses

Hands-on exercises

1. Lab00: Team Building,Introduction, Assembly, Hardware Overview
2. Lab01 : Ardupilot software installation (Rover firmware), mission planner, configuration, setup, logging
3. Lab02: RC Setup, Parameter Tuning & Mode Configuration
4. Lab03: Software In The Loop (SITL) & Auto Modes
5. Lab04: Companion Computer (Rpi 5) – Autopilot Integration
6. Lab05: Collision Avoidance
7. Lab06: Visual Navigation for Autonomous Vehicles

Theory classes

1. The use of GIS Story Maps in oceanography
2. Intro to Marine Robotics
3. Robotics Motion Control
4. Marine Remotely Operated Vehicles [BLUE ROV + GRIPPER]
5. Architectures For Autonomous Systems
6. Maritime Informatics I
7. Marine Technology and Geohazards
8. Maritime Informatics II

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🔬 Python Projects

The Code folder contains 7 progressive Python-based projects, moving from basics to advanced multi-vessel systems:

Project	Title	Description
01	Basic Telemetry	Connect to vehicle and read basic telemetry using DroneKit
02	MQTT Telemetry	Publish telemetry data remotely using MQTT
03	OOP Refactor	Introduce modular, maintainable object-oriented architecture
04	Multi-Vessel Roles	Develop a role-based system with WSL2 Docker integration
05	Pub/Sub Messaging	Implement MQTT JSON messaging for structured control
06	Remote Commanding	Send and process mission commands over the network
07	Vessel Coordination	Implement autonomous following and fleet behavior

All projects run on ArduPilot Rover with FRAME_CLASS=2 for maritime surface platforms.

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🏁 Aegean Roboat Race

Part of the summer school includes participation in the Aegean Ro-boat Race in the IEEE Symposium on Maritime Informatics & Robotics held at the Apollon Theatre in Ermoupolis, Syros island, Greece. This race consists in a competitive real-world challenge where teams:

• Design and build autonomous boats (< 2.5m)
• Test navigation, collision avoidance, and autonomy
• Score points for innovation, sensor fusion, and autonomy
• Face real maritime conditions

This event fosters collaboration between academia and industry, testing prototype technologies in the field.

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🌊 Real-World Learning

• Use authentic sea trial data
• Apply critical thinking, hypothesis generation, and data analysis
• Participate in “on-the-water” experimental evaluations
• Learn by doing: cookbook-style + open-ended experimentation

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🤝 Contributors & Lab Info

Smart MOVE Lab
University of the Aegean – Syros
Multidisciplinary research on smart mobility and maritime robotics.

Instructors

• Nikos Goulas
• Nikos Sapountzis
• Thomas Kogias