Test water areas for testing technical means of unmanned water transport. The main directions of patenting the results of research and development

Abstract

The test water area is designed for testing, monitoring and navigation of unmanned surface vessel, both in offline mode and in remote control mode. The paper presents the results of the analysis of the thematic search for security documents (applications, patents for inventions and utility models, certificates for computer programs) in the field of testing of technical means of unmanned water transport. There are six groups of patents in this area: test water area; experimental (test) basin; method (technique) of the test (system, complex for tests); test device; test program; remote control (management, monitoring) of the vessel. The distribution of patent documents by type, years, and countries is presented. It was found that almost half of the selected patent documents are applications for inventions, and in 2017-2018, the largest number of protection documents were registered. It is revealed that the Republic of Korea patents the most inventions in this field of research and development, Chinese organizations take the lead in applications for inventions, and Russia mainly registers computer programs. The overall leadership in the development of technical means for the control, management and monitoring, as well as testing of unmanned surface vessels belongs to China. China actively patents its developments in such areas as “test methods” and “remote control, management and monitoring of an unmanned surface vessel”. Russia is a leader in the following areas: “programs for test water areas and experimental basins” and “programs for testing unmanned surface vessels”. The Republic of Korea is a leader in the field of “devices for testing unmanned surface vessels”.