RAMI Marine Robots Competition 2025
NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE)
La Spezia, Italy
29 June - 4 July 2025
La Spezia, Italy
29 June - 4 July 2025
About the Competition
The RAMI marine competition tasks are inspired by the following user story.
A component of critical undersea infrastructure, used for oil transportation, is to be investigated after suspicious activities, spotted by a drone, have caused a malfunction, as reported by the plant safety systems. From what is known, a pipeline has started leaking and an explosion may occur soon. A robotics team composed of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and their human operators is ready to intervene.
It is now time for the emergency team to act. The goals of the emergency team are to: (i) reach the area of the accident, while assessing and quantifying the leak; (ii) locate the pipe assembly area, quantify the damage to the plant, and identify which pipe has been damaged and is responsible for the leak; (iii) perform an intervention on the plant by closing a valve to stop the leak to prevent an explosion and further damage to the environment.
A component of critical undersea infrastructure, used for oil transportation, is to be investigated after suspicious activities, spotted by a drone, have caused a malfunction, as reported by the plant safety systems. From what is known, a pipeline has started leaking and an explosion may occur soon. A robotics team composed of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and their human operators is ready to intervene.
It is now time for the emergency team to act. The goals of the emergency team are to: (i) reach the area of the accident, while assessing and quantifying the leak; (ii) locate the pipe assembly area, quantify the damage to the plant, and identify which pipe has been damaged and is responsible for the leak; (iii) perform an intervention on the plant by closing a valve to stop the leak to prevent an explosion and further damage to the environment.
Look back to RAMI 2023
As we approach the new edition, take a look at the teams and people behind the 2023 edition.
The RAMI Marine Robots competition builds on the experience of the METRICS EU project (https://metricsproject.eu) and of the European Robotics League (ERL) Emergency competitions. The European Robotics League is an innovative concept for robot competitions which stems from its predecessors, the euRathlon and RoCKIn competitions, and focuses on tasks that emergency response robots execute in a realistic emergency environment. For more information about ERL, please visit https://eu-robotics.net/robotics_league.
The RAMI competition aims at addressing Inspection & Maintenance tasks achieved by underwater robots in risky and/or hostile environments where human intervention is challenging or impossible, where direct link with an operator could not be guaranteed and where autonomous decisions are necessary to reduce operational time of the inspection tasks and ensure repeatability while maintaining an appropriate safety level for the mission. RAMI proposes to teams tasks with different grades of difficulty, to challenge both new entry teams and veteran ones, hence providing a growth path for the teams. The tasks will require multi-domain cooperation, autonomous navigation, data acquisition, detection, classification, manipulation and autonomous decision-making.
For the first time in our competitions at CMRE, the AUV will be requested to cooperate with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) provided by the Organization which will trigger the AUV’s mission by sending messages using the Collaborative Autonomy Tasking Layer (CATL) format, a NATO standard message protocol being developed by CMRE to support interoperability between teams of robots in autonomous missions
Task Benchmarks
The competition will be held in CMRE's seawater basin, offering the competitors a realistic setting.
Teams will be ranked on three different task benchmarks (TBMs), each one carried out in a different day.
Teams will be ranked on three different task benchmarks (TBMs), each one carried out in a different day.
TBM-1: Pipeline area inspection
The AUV has to reach through autonomous navigation the area in TBM-1, where an UAV (provided and controlled by CMRE) flies over the CUI area and detects an intruder vehicle. The UAV tracks the vehicle movements and informs the team’s AUV about the location of vehicle’s dive.
The participant AUV has to reach through autonomous navigation the area possibly at risk. Once in the area, the robot has first to assess the existence of the oil leak by identifying the oil plume in the area (to map the buoy position in the buoy area – buoys simulate the presence of the chemical). Then, the AUV must to inspect the pipeline structure to localize and quantify the damage on the structure that is producing the leak.
This is the TBM in which the robots survey the accident area and provide an assessment of the situation for further intervention. This is crucial for further intervention of the robotic team.
The participant AUV has to reach through autonomous navigation the area possibly at risk. Once in the area, the robot has first to assess the existence of the oil leak by identifying the oil plume in the area (to map the buoy position in the buoy area – buoys simulate the presence of the chemical). Then, the AUV must to inspect the pipeline structure to localize and quantify the damage on the structure that is producing the leak.
This is the TBM in which the robots survey the accident area and provide an assessment of the situation for further intervention. This is crucial for further intervention of the robotic team.
TBM-2: Intervention on the pipeline structure
The robot has to confirm the damage to the structure and to stop the leak. The robot first has to assess the extent of the damage by visual inspection of the main pipe (following and inspecting a pipe) and through direct measurements on the structure (i.e. staying in touch with one of the pipes for some time). Then, it has to reach a manipulation console, recognising it through the detection of a black number over a red background. Finally, it has to close the valve on the console and grab a pole-ring and bring that to the surface.
TBM-3: Complete I&M mission at the plant
TBM-3 combines TBM-1 and TBM-2 and thereby constitutes a complete I&M mission at the plant.
The Challenge
One underwater robot is needed for each TBM. The robot needs to be capable of navigating in unstructured environments, sense the environment with underwater optical and acoustic sensors, and manipulate valves and other objects.
The robot is required to work autonomously in all the tasks, however it can be tele-operated during tasks involving manipulation. The scoring will reflect the level of autonomy, the higher the level of autonomy, the higher the score.
The robot is required to work autonomously in all the tasks, however it can be tele-operated during tasks involving manipulation. The scoring will reflect the level of autonomy, the higher the level of autonomy, the higher the score.
Rules
The rulebook can be downloaded here.
Participating Teams
The participating teams will be announced after the selection process. See “Call for participation” section for details on how to apply to RAMI 2025.
Travel support
Partial support for the travel and accommodation costs will be provided to the teams.
Student Poster Competition
The participating students will have a chance to showcase their research in topics relevant to marine science and engineering.
Researchers (maximum 2 years since the PhD and 5 years since Master Degree graduation) can bring and expose a poster (recommended size A0) related to one research topic.
The poster has to be accompanied by a paper, already published or still unpublished.
A day will be dedicated to the poster presentation. The best poster will be awarded by a judging committee.
Scientific quality will be evaluated together with poster aestethic quality and quality of oral presentation of work.
Researchers (maximum 2 years since the PhD and 5 years since Master Degree graduation) can bring and expose a poster (recommended size A0) related to one research topic.
The poster has to be accompanied by a paper, already published or still unpublished.
A day will be dedicated to the poster presentation. The best poster will be awarded by a judging committee.
Scientific quality will be evaluated together with poster aestethic quality and quality of oral presentation of work.
Call for participants
Application Procedure
Application Procedure
Important dates
1 February 2025 - Applications open
15 April 2025 - Deadline for application Part 1
15 June 2025 - Papers for Student Poster Competition submission
29 June 2025 - Competition begins
4 July 2025 - Competition ends
1 February 2025 - Applications open
15 April 2025 - Deadline for application Part 1
30 May 2025 - Deadline for application Part 2
10 June 2025 - Qualification announcement15 June 2025 - Papers for Student Poster Competition submission
29 June 2025 - Competition begins
4 July 2025 - Competition ends
- Part 1Applicant teams must send an email to ramiMarineRobots@gmail.com expressing their intention to participate in the campaign and providing the following information about the team (download templates and forms from the resource menu) by the first deadline:
- Team Information Form
- Vehicle Specification Form (one per vehicle)
- Part 2For part 2, teams must provide the following documents (download below)
- Scenario Application Paper (describing how the team plans to tackle the TBMs).
- Letter of Intent (LOI) regarding liability and insurance.
- Photograph & Video release form signed by each of the team members.
- Payment of 300 Euros as a non-refundable registration fee.
- A video showing the robots performing the autonomous navigation (in a pool or in the sea) with the vehicle completely submerged with no wiring to control it.
- Selection CriteriaTeams will be selected for participation based on:
- Team research quality, as determined from the application documents.
Number of available slots for team participation in the tournament. A maximum number of teams could be set for organization reasons. In this case, this will be communicated to the teams in advance.
Organization
NATO STO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE)
Place and time
Seawater water basin at CMRE, 29 June-4 July 2025
Organising Committee
Chair
Co-chairs
- Dr Gabriele Ferri (Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation, CMRE, Italy)
Co-chairs
- Alessandro Faggiani (Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation, CMRE, Italy)
- Dr Federico Celi (Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation, CMRE, Italy)
Contacts
Contact us at ramiMarineRobots@gmail.com.
Once one team becomes an official RAMI entry, the team leader will serve as the primary point of contact with the OC.
Once one team becomes an official RAMI entry, the team leader will serve as the primary point of contact with the OC.
Venue
The RAMI Marine Robots 2025 will be hosted at NATO STO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation, La Spezia, Italy.
Address (Get directions)
NATO STO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation
Viale San Bartolomeo, 400,
La Spezia,
Italy
The RAMI Marine Robots 2025 edition will be held at the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation premises, located inside the MARIPERMAN Italian Navy base in La Spezia. Please be aware that, while there are no restrictions on the nationality of team members working on the robots at home, access to the competition site will be subject to the security regulations in force, which include restrictions on citizens of non NATO or non NATO-partners countries.
For more information on NATO Nations and partner countries, please visit: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/nato_countries.htm and https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/51288.htm
Address (Get directions)
NATO STO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation
Viale San Bartolomeo, 400,
La Spezia,
Italy
The RAMI Marine Robots 2025 edition will be held at the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation premises, located inside the MARIPERMAN Italian Navy base in La Spezia. Please be aware that, while there are no restrictions on the nationality of team members working on the robots at home, access to the competition site will be subject to the security regulations in force, which include restrictions on citizens of non NATO or non NATO-partners countries.
For more information on NATO Nations and partner countries, please visit: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/nato_countries.htm and https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/51288.htm
Sponsors
Platinum Sponsor
Silver Sponsors
RAMI 2025
ramiMarineRobots@gmail.com
