  Current advancements in waterborne autonomous systems, together with the
development of cloud-based service-oriented architectures and the recent
availability of low-cost underwater acoustic modems and long-range above water
wireless devices, enabled the development of new applications to support ships
and port activities. Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) can, for instance, be used
to perform bathymetry and environmental data collection tasks to ensure
under-keel clearance and to monitor the quality of the water. Similarly,
Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) can be deployed to inspect ship hulls and
typical port infrastructure elements, such as quay and sheet pilling walls. In
this paper we present the complete system deployed for the small-scale
demonstrations of the Robotic Vessels as-a-Service (RoboVaaS) project, which
introduces an on-demand service-based cloud system that dispatches Unmanned
Vehicles (UVs) capable of performing the required service either autonomously
or piloted. These vessels are able to interact with sensors deployed in the
port and with the shore station through an integrated underwater and above
water network. The developed system has been validated through sea trials and
showcased through an underwater sensor data collection service. The results of
the test presented in this paper provide a proof-of-concept of the system
design and indicate its technical feasibility. It also shows the need for
further developments for a mature technology allowing on-demand robotic
maritime assistance services in real operational scenarios.
