Boating Business

Brunswick Corporation Expands Autonomy Program

Jason Arbuckle has been behind many of Mercury’s vessel-control software products.

Brunswick Corporation continues to build on its Autonomy, Connectivity, Electrification & Shared Access (ACES) strategy to develop ways to further improve the boating experience. To support this effort, the company has named Jason Arbuckle Marine Autonomy Technology Lead. Brunswick says the new position will “lead to the delivery of highly automated-to-autonomous solutions for the recreational marine industry.”

Arbuckle’s promotion follows the announcement last November that John Oenick was hired as director, enterprise electrification, a role that Brunswick said supported efforts to deliver electrification solutions across the company. “Automation and control technologies are rapidly emerging critical enablers for delivering innovation through smart-connected recreational marine products and experiences,” Dave Foulkes, Brunswick Corporation CEO said. “Jason is a proven leader who will help us advance our capabilities, providing leadership to our emerging autonomy teams across the entire enterprise.”

Added Arbuckle, “I am excited for this opportunity to lead advancements in marine autonomy for Brunswick Corporation. Brunswick has made advancements in vessel control over the last several years through assisted docking, joystick piloting, Skyhook and more, and I believe autonomous and driver-assistance features are the next steps in enabling an easier boating experience.”

Mercury’s Joystick Piloting System is one of the successful projects that Arbuckle helped mastermind.

Arbuckle joined Mercury in 1997 and has been instrumental in the development of helm software for the company’s products from single-engine to six-engine vessels and has been granted more than 45 patents related to marine-control systems. Most notably, he led Mercury’s vessel control team to develop AutoPilot systems, SkyHook, BowHook and DriftHook as well as the vessel control software efforts for Starfish 1 and 2.

He has a BS, MS and PhD in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University and contributes time to students entering the field at the Naval Post Graduate School, the United States Navy, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Philos autonomous vessel program and student SAE projects at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

 

Improved vessel control lets a driver control all six of these engines with two control levers or a single joystick.