Developing a re-configurable architecture for the remote operation of marine autonomous systems

In this experience report, we explain how we take advantage of microservices’ inherent modular nature to accomplish a highly adaptable software architecture that can deal with the trials and tribulations often occurring in marine research environments. We will show the National Oceanography Centre’s journey to develop a web system to remotely operate marine autonomous vehicles from anywhere in the world with an internet connection and how, due to new unforeseen requirements, we took the microservice pattern into a new direction to allow for standalone offline operations of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) from research ships in some of the most challenging environments in the world.