The euRathlon consortium has entrusted the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), based in La Spezia (Italy), the organization of the 2015 event.
Dates and venue of the competition were announced on 21 January during a press conference by CMRE, Municipality and ENEL representatives.

“As part of the euRathlon consortium, we are proud to organize the final event of the Project” says Jean-Guy Fontaine, scientist at CMRE. “We will take to Piombino our expertise in organizing world-class competitions, such as the SAUC-Europe, the challenge between student-built unmanned underwater vehicles held annually at our Centre.”

The NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation played a crucial role in enhancing autonomy and integration between Autonomous Surface Vehicles and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as part of the ICARUS (Integrated Components for Assisted Rescue and Unmanned Search operations) project, funded by the European Commission.

CMRE hosted the 2014 sea trials between 13 October and 24 October.

From 21 to 23 October the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) hosted a Workshop where the first results of the REP14-MED scientific campaign conducted in June 2014 in the Sardinian Sea were presented. From 7 to 9 October the Centre hosted as well the 2nd CMRE Workshop on Military Applications of Glider Technology.

In September 2014, the CMRE Glider team received a NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO) Scientific Achievement Award for the high level of the science and technology demonstrated.

CMRE is being recognized as one of the world leader in the development and demonstration of robotic platforms, such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles like gliders, used for the characterization and forecasting of the underwater environment.

The NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) has just concluded two intense weeks of student challenges with a multi-domain demonstration.
Vicorob by the University of Girona won four out of five scenarios. Only in the "Environmental survey of the accident area" one Vicorob won the 2nd prize jointly with SAUC-ISSE from ENSTA Bretagne. This scenario was dominated by DFKI GmbH-University of Bremen team (Germany) with the robot Avalon.

From 22 September to 13 October 2014, the NATO Research Vessel Alliance conducts the Multinational AutoNomy Experiment (MANEX '14) along the Ligurian coast, in order to demonstrate the advantages of mapping the seabed using autonomous vehicles.

For the first time two teams jointly won the SAUC-E competition, the Student Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge - Europe. The ENSTA Bretagne team, with the robot SAUC-ISSE, and the DFKI GmbH-University of Bremen team, with
the robot Avalon, triumphed over four other teams at the 9th edition. The 2nd prize went jointly to ENSTA Bretagne team, with the robot CISSAU, and to University of Applied Sciences Kiel, with the robot TomKyle, which was awarded as well
for the "Best Journal Paper".
The SAUC-E Award Ceremony debutted downtown in La Spezia during the European Researchers' Night.
From 29 September to 3 October 2014, CMRE will also host for the first time the euRathlon sea robotic challenge.

From 7 to 28 July, off the coast of Portugal, four naval units and ten international partners conduct collaborative experimentation in the fields of underwater communications, autonomy and multi-domain cooperative robotics...

The REP14-MED sea trial includes 21 partners from six Nations. From 6 to 26 June 2014, onboard NRV Alliance and German research vessel Planet, and at research centres ashore, experts from those institutions will be working on the future of ocean monitoring and seabed characterization...

From 2 to 19 June 2014, the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), part of the NATO Science and Technology Organization, will be taking part, for the second time, in the 2014 NATO Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXploration, eXperimentation, eXamination, eXercise (CWIX) at the Joint Forces Training Centre, in Bydgoszcz (Poland). CWIX is a unique NATO event that allows systems and network engineers to come together to solve existing interoperability issues and explore shared solutions.
This year CWIX will be hosting fifteen NATO Nations, four partner Nations and twelve NATO commands which are bringing 175 capability configurations to conduct more than 3000 interoperability tests in the 13-day period. During the event, CMRE scientists will be testing capabilities developed in data fusion, maritime asset allocation and underwater communications.

The NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (part of the NATO Science and Technology Organization) confirms and increases its commitment to foster a new generation of robotic engineers.
In September 2014, in addition to the Student Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge - Europe (SAUC-E) hosted for the fifth year in a row in CMRE's sheltered harbour, the first euRathlon sea robotic competition will be held the following week.
SAUC-E (9th edition) will be held from 20 to 26 September 2014. euRathlon sea robotic challenge will be hosted from 29 September to 3 October 2014.

On 21 and 22 November 2013 the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation hosts the TALON 13 demonstration, part of the NATO Defence Against Terrorism (DAT) programme.
TALON 13 is an international demonstration organized in collaboration with the Italian Navy COMFORDRAG (Mine Countermeasures Maritime Command) and aimed at security professionals.
It gathers experience from the integration of multiple types of sensor networks and non-lethal warning devices, in order to implement the "rapid contact designation and warning" concept.
During the demonstration a series of possible threats from small boats, underwater vehicles and swimmers/divers are simulated. TALON shows how it can automatically detect them and react to the tentative intrusion of a unit with hostile intent, by escalating its reaction capabilities from a simple audible warning to the use of non-lethal effectors.

From 22 to 27 July 2013, the NATO CMRE participated in the 2013 sea trials of the MORPH (Marine Robotic System of Self-Organising, logically Linked Physical Nodes) European Commission project, which aims to test multiple-vehicle coordination and formation flying based on echo-location. The trial occurred off the coast of Toulon (France) at the European Centre of Underwater Technologies, part of the French Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer).
CMRE's contribution to the 2013 sea trials was instrumental in the success of the test as the coordination algorithms developed by the project partners rely on the ability to exchange data and estimate relative positions of the vehicles. With this core capability the Consortium (32 scientists from five countries and other eight research organizations) successfully demonstrated coordinated manoeuvres between four autonomous vehicles (two underwater and two surface) in a diamond-shaped formation.

 The University of Cambridge triumphed over 7 other teams to win the SAUC-E '13, the 8th Student Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge - Europe.  The team's AUV named "Barracuda" obtained the highest score performing a number of mission tasks. The 2nd prize went to the University of the West England with its AUV "Phoenix", while the "FeelHippo" team from the University of Florence took home the 3rd prize, both awarded for the overall effort and the high quality performance even out of the water.
The competition was held 28 June to 5 July 2013 was hosted for the 4th time in a row by the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), formerly known as the NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) at its waterfront, in La Spezia, Italy. 

The NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), the Science & Technology Organization (STO) executive body in charge of scientific research and technology development in the maritime domain, showcased future solutions to address defence and security needs of the Alliance by using unmanned vehicles connected through the "Internet of Underwater Things". It happened during the eighth meeting of STO Task Group IST-096 focused on maturity models, scenario definition and prototyping environments in cyber defence.

A group of student officers from the Italian Naval Academy in Livorno visited the Italian Navy San Bartolomeo military compound where the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) is located on 10 April 2013. The focus of the visit was to deepen practical knowledge in the most recent cutting-edge scientific innovations in the maritime domain.

The initiative is part of a broader educational project built on the successful long-time collaboration between CMRE and Italian Naval Academy in Livorno. The new edition will also include a set of lectures at the Naval Academy on: operations research (asset path planning, decision support, sonar performance modelling), the use of underwater robotic vehicles in anti-submarine warfare, the CMRE multi-static tactical planning aid software and communications and networks in the maritime environment.

The Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) Exercise Proud Manta ‘13 (POMA ‘13), which includes participating ships and aircraft from ten NATO nations, will be held from 23 February to 6 March off the coast of Sicily.

As in 2012, the 2013 Proud Manta includes again major scientific tests during the exercise: scientists from the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) are testing technologies and software that they have been developed for detection and tracking of submarines in the marine environment. In particular CMRE performs experimentation with an autonomous ASW barrier to protect a shoreline asset using autonomous underwater and surface vehicles (AUVs and ASVs), with the Ocean Explorer AUV performing detections as in POMA ‘12, and the Wave Glider, a new wave-powered unmanned surface vehicle debuting here for the first time in a NATO ASW exercise, acting as a communications gateway.

CMRE is part of the consortium of the new EU project euRathlon which expands on the well-established SAUC-Europe underwater competition with land and airborne contests.

The new European Union initiative will create an exciting new Grand Challenge for intelligent search and rescue robots. The euRathlon project is a three-year effort, funded by the European Commission. It is led by the University of the West of England (UWE) with seven partners, including CMRE. Three competitions will see robots and their teams of designers go head to head in a series of demanding outdoor scenarios that mimic the real challenges of a disaster situation. The adoption of common standards for communication and shared concepts will facilitate integration and collaboration.

As part of PROUD MANTA (POMA) 2013, the world's largest annual Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) live exercise hosted by NATO, off southeast coast of Sicily, the Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE, ex NURC) will present to media an overview of the scientific programme of tests that will be conducted during the Exercise, and in particular the Wave Glider, a new wave-power operated unmanned surface vehicle debuting here for the first time in a POMA exercise.

The Media Day will be held at the Augusta Naval Base Officers Club from 9 AM to 11.30 AM. 

If you are interested in participating, or for more information about CMRE, please contact the CMRE Public Affairs Office at +39 0187 527 369 or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Accreditations requests are due by 19 February 2013.

How can science help fighting piracy? How are intelligent robots and cooperative networks  taking over the underwater world? What's next in ocean exploration? Three scientists from the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (STO-CMRE) will share these concept and more at Science Festival in Genoa from 31 October to 2 November 2012.

École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) du Quebec triumphed over 14 other teams to win the SAUC-E '12, the 7th Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe. The team's AUV named "SONIA" obtained the highest score successfully completing a number of mission tasks. The 2nd prize went to University of Luebeck from Germany (2011 Champion) with its AUV "Hanse", while ENSTA Bretagne – team Sauc'isse and Sardine from France took home the 3rd prize, closely followed by team AVALON from University of Bremen who entered the final phase as "best qualifier".

The competition was hosted for the third time, from 6 to 13 July 2012, by the Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), formerly known as the NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) at its waterfront, in La Spezia, Italy