Title: Towards a Digital Dock – Automated Planning for Keel Block Reconfiguration at the Captain Cook Graving Dock

Speaker: Dr William Jones
Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR)

Summary:

Naval readiness relies heavily on the efficient turnaround of vessels undertaking critical maintenance in dry dock. At Sydney’s Garden Island, a key aspect of preparing the dock for incoming vessels is the manual positioning of keel blocks, essential structures supporting ships out of water. This setup process is labour-intensive and time-consuming, reducing valuable ship maintenance periods. This talk will present Task and Motion Planning algorithms used to generate optimised plans for the re-arrangement of keel blocks for forklift operators to follow, significantly reducing setup time. Ultimately, they will enable autonomous forklifts to lay keel blocks overnight without human intervention, substantially increasing maintenance availability and decreasing labour requirements. 

This work is one aspect of a partnership between Thales and the Australian Robotic Inspection and Asset Management (ARIAM) team to develop a fully digital, autonomous dry dock. The broader vision for Garden Island includes robotic platforms scanning vessels before arrival and creating detailed digital twins to inform maintenance plans. ARIAM has demonstrated the feasibility of using underwater and aerial drones to produce accurate 3D reconstructions above and below the waterline and within enclosed spaces within a vessel, enabling proactive maintenance strategies to be considered. This presentation will further outline the journey towards a fully autonomous, digital dock. 

Bio:

Dr William Jones is a Research Fellow in Planning and Optimisation. He is part of the Australian Robotic Inspection and Asset Management (ARIAM) Research Hub within the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) at the University of Sydney. He has extensive experience applying modelling, dynamic simulation and optimisation techniques to support capital growth and productivity improvements for internationally recognisable brands in the transport, telecommunications, healthcare and resource sectors worldwide. With experience in academia and consulting his focus is on applying state-of-the-art, research-informed techniques from the fields of mathematics, operations research and software development to help organisations identify opportunities to increase efficiency and improve their value chains. 

 Dr Jones received a B.Sc. Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Cardiff University (2013) and an EngD. in Systems from the University of Bristol (2019). He has previously held postdoctoral positions at the University of Kent and the University of Sydney’s Rio Tinto Centre for Mine Automation. His particular research specialism is in the area of hybrid simulation (i.e., models that combine multiple simulation paradigms/techniques) and the processes of hybrid simulation conceptualisation and development. 

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SEMINAR: WED 7 MAY 2025 16:00-17:00 (AEST, Melbourne Time)
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