Catherine A. Harris

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About

Catherine A. Harris is a leading researcher in marine autonomous systems, specializing in the long-range command, control, and data infrastructure needed to operate unmanned vehicles beyond the visual line-of-sight. Her work addresses the critical challenge of enabling ocean-going robots—such as autonomous underwater and surface vehicles—to conduct extended missions lasting weeks or months with only periodic satellite communication. Harris’s most-cited paper, "Oceanids C2: An Integrated Command, Control, and Data Infrastructure for the Over-the-Horizon Operation of Marine Autonomous Systems" (2020, 19 citations), introduces a pioneering framework that allows remote pilots to manage multiple vehicles across vast ocean distances, dramatically expanding the scope of autonomous oceanographic data collection. She has also made foundational contributions to risk and reliability modelling for multi-vehicle marine domains (2016, 10 citations), drawing insightful parallels between AUV missions and Mars rover operations to develop robust probabilistic models for mission success in uncertain environments. Her work is instrumental in transforming oceanography from ship-based expeditions to scalable, persistent autonomous surveys, with direct applications in climate monitoring, underwater mapping, and offshore energy inspection.