Distributed control design for underwater vehicles

The vast majority of control applications are based on non-interacting decentralized control designs. Because of their single-loop structure, these controllers cannot suppress interactions of the system. It would be useful to tackle the undesirable effects of the interactions at the design stage. A novel model predictive control scheme based on Nash optimality is presented to achieve this goal. In this algorithm, the control problem is decomposed into that of several small-coupled mixed integer optimisation problems. The relevant computational convergence, closed-loop performance and the effect of communication failures on the closed-loop behaviour are analysed. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed control algorithm

Autonomous Planning System (APS) for an Onboard TCPED Pipeline

As satellites and spacecraft grow in number and operate farther from Earth, there is an emerging need for increased autonomy via onboard decision making that is independent of ground stations but allows for collaboration between teams of assets. Such autonomy will relieve the burden on human operators, enable faster responses to dynamic events, and reduce communications between orbital assets and ground stations. Orbit Logic’s Autonomous Planning System (APS) is flexible and customizable onboard software that enables teamed autonomy through the use of Tasking, Collection, Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (TCPED) pipelines onboard the satellites. Its small computational/memory footprint makes it especially suitable for small satellites: APS has been successfully demonstrated on constrained platforms such as the Raspberry Pi and the Unibap e2100. While APS is employed to create, plan and orchestrate TCPED pipelines, its flexible architecture allows it to interface with other satellite or software components that can provide states or events to inform or trigger planning, and to integrate with satellite resources that can execute those plans. For example, in an Earth-imaging satellite mission, APS tasks the satellite to perform collections, facilitates delivery of the collected data to onboard processing/analysis modules, and uses the results to inform future tasking, e.g., following-up with additional collection or processing. APS on a given asset employs one or more Specialized Autonomous Planning Agents (SAPAs), software modules that plan onboard activities for a specialized need. Through configurable plugins, they can be customized to the capabilities and mission roles of the host asset. Each SAPA is dedicated to a general mission-or system-level need (e.g., separate SAPAs may focus on collection planning, contact scheduling, and fault management) and issue one or more high-level activities to fulfill that need. These activities are fielded by the Master Autonomous Planning Agent (MAPA), which performs intelligent deconfliction of the onboard resources that activity execution requires. The resource execution timeline is composed to maximize the “goodness” of all competing activities using a configurable multi-factor figure of merit (FOM). APS’s modular architecture and well-defined interfaces facilitate rapid development and deployment of novel or enhanced capabilities. The level of autonomy is customizable and can be tuned over the course of the mission to allow the satellite more autonomy as it gains trust. These features allow APS to be easily deployed for complex satellite missions with multiple competing mission objectives. APS’s constellation-level collaborative autonomy seamlessly extends its asset-level autonomy. Multiple APS-enabled satellites equipped with inter-satellite links or access to a space network can coordinate without ground station communications, e.g., a constellation of imaging satellites can perform load balancing among themselves to ensure coverage and limit redundancy. Such autonomous collaboration is especially important in scenarios where evolving conditions change mission parameters, e.g., if one satellite collects imagery from a region, and processing of that imagery identifies signatures warranting follow-up tasking, a different satellite overflying the location in the near future can perform the collection. APS has been developed and extended for multi-domain, multi-asset mission applications through multiple programs sponsored by AFRL, DARPA, NASA, and ONR

A Survey on UAV-Aided Maritime Communications: Deployment Considerations, Applications, and Future Challenges

Maritime activities represent a major domain of economic growth with several emerging maritime Internet of Things use cases, such as smart ports, autonomous navigation, and ocean monitoring systems. The major enabler for this exciting ecosystem is the provision of broadband, low-delay, and reliable wireless coverage to the ever-increasing number of vessels, buoys, platforms, sensors, and actuators. Towards this end, the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in maritime communications introduces an aerial dimension to wireless connectivity going above and beyond current deployments, which are mainly relying on shore-based base stations with limited coverage and satellite links with high latency. Considering the potential of UAV-aided wireless communications, this survey presents the state-of-the-art in UAV-aided maritime communications, which, in general, are based on both conventional optimization and machine-learning-aided approaches. More specifically, relevant UAV-based network architectures are discussed together with the role of their building blocks. Then, physical-layer, resource management, and cloud/edge computing and caching UAV-aided solutions in maritime environments are discussed and grouped based on their performance targets. Moreover, as UAVs are characterized by flexible deployment with high re-positioning capabilities, studies on UAV trajectory optimization for maritime applications are thoroughly discussed. In addition, aiming at shedding light on the current status of real-world deployments, experimental studies on UAV-aided maritime communications are presented and implementation details are given. Finally, several important open issues in the area of UAV-aided maritime communications are given, related to the integration of sixth generation (6G) advancements

Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations on Air, Sea, Land

Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land is our fourth textbook in a series covering the world of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CUAS). (Nichols R. K., 2018) (Nichols R. K., et al., 2019) (Nichols R. , et al., 2020)The authors have expanded their purview beyond UAS / CUAS systems. Our title shows our concern for growth and unique cyber security unmanned vehicle technology and operations for unmanned vehicles in all theaters: Air, Sea and Land – especially maritime cybersecurity and China proliferation issues. Topics include: Information Advances, Remote ID, and Extreme Persistence ISR; Unmanned Aerial Vehicles & How They Can Augment Mesonet Weather Tower Data Collection; Tour de Drones for the Discerning Palate; Underwater Autonomous Navigation & other UUV Advances; Autonomous Maritime Asymmetric Systems; UUV Integrated Autonomous Missions & Drone Management; Principles of Naval Architecture Applied to UUV’s; Unmanned Logistics Operating Safely and Efficiently Across Multiple Domains; Chinese Advances in Stealth UAV Penetration Path Planning in Combat Environment; UAS, the Fourth Amendment and Privacy; UV & Disinformation / Misinformation Channels; Chinese UAS Proliferation along New Silk Road Sea / Land Routes; Automaton, AI, Law, Ethics, Crossing the Machine – Human Barrier and Maritime Cybersecurity.Unmanned Vehicle Systems are an integral part of the US national critical infrastructure The authors have endeavored to bring a breadth and quality of information to the reader that is unparalleled in the unclassified sphere. Unmanned Vehicle (UV) Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land discusses state-of-the-art technology / issues facing U.S. UV system researchers / designers / manufacturers / testers. We trust our newest look at Unmanned Vehicles in Air, Sea, and Land will enrich our students and readers understanding of the purview of this wonderful technology we call UV.https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1035/thumbnail.jp

MULTI-AGENT UNMANNED UNDERWATER VEHICLE VALIDATION VIA ROLLING-HORIZON ROBUST GAMES

Autonomy in unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) navigation is critical for most applications due to inability of human operators to control, monitor or intervene in underwater environments. To ensure safe autonomous navigation, verification and validation (V&V) procedures are needed for various applications. This thesis proposes a game theory-based benchmark validation technique for trajectory optimization for non-cooperative UUVs. A quadratically constrained nonlinear program formulation is presented, and a "perfect-information reality" validation framework is derived by finding a Nash equilibrium to various two-player pursuit-evasion games (PEG). A Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) point to such a game represents a best-case local optimum, given perfect information available to non-cooperative agents. Rolling-horizon foresight with robust obstacles are incorporated to demonstrate incomplete information and stochastic environmental conditions. A MATLAB-GAMS interface is developed to model the rolling-horizon game, and is solved via a mixed complementarity problem (MCP), and illustrative examples show how equilibrium trajectories can serve as benchmarks for more practical real-time path planners

Disruptive Technologies with Applications in Airline & Marine and Defense Industries

Disruptive Technologies With Applications in Airline, Marine, Defense Industries is our fifth textbook in a series covering the world of Unmanned Vehicle Systems Applications & Operations On Air, Sea, and Land. The authors have expanded their purview beyond UAS / CUAS / UUV systems that we have written extensively about in our previous four textbooks. Our new title shows our concern for the emergence of Disruptive Technologies and how they apply to the Airline, Marine and Defense industries. Emerging technologies are technologies whose development, practical applications, or both are still largely unrealized, such that they are figuratively emerging into prominence from a background of nonexistence or obscurity. A Disruptive technology is one that displaces an established technology and shakes up the industry or a ground-breaking product that creates a completely new industry.That is what our book is about. The authors think we have found technology trends that will replace the status quo or disrupt the conventional technology paradigms.The authors have collaborated to write some explosive chapters in Book 5:Advances in Automation & Human Machine Interface; Social Media as a Battleground in Information Warfare (IW); Robust cyber-security alterative / replacement for the popular Blockchain Algorithm and a clean solution for Ransomware; Advanced sensor technologies that are used by UUVs for munitions characterization, assessment, and classification and counter hostile use of UUVs against U.S. capital assets in the South China Seas. Challenged the status quo and debunked the climate change fraud with verifiable facts; Explodes our minds with nightmare technologies that if they come to fruition may do more harm than good; Propulsion and Fuels: Disruptive Technologies for Submersible Craft Including UUVs; Challenge the ammunition industry by grassroots use of recycled metals; Changing landscape of UAS regulations and drone privacy; and finally, Detailing Bioterrorism Risks, Biodefense, Biological Threat Agents, and the need for advanced sensors to detect these attacks.https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1038/thumbnail.jp

Collaborative Multi-Robot Search and Rescue: Planning, Coordination, Perception, and Active Vision

Search and rescue (SAR) operations can take significant advantage from supporting autonomous or teleoperated robots and multi-robot systems. These can aid in mapping and situational assessment, monitoring and surveillance, establishing communication networks, or searching for victims. This paper provides a review of multi-robot systems supporting SAR operations, with system-level considerations and focusing on the algorithmic perspectives for multi-robot coordination and perception. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first survey paper to cover (i) heterogeneous SAR robots in different environments, (ii) active perception in multi-robot systems, while (iii) giving two complementary points of view from the multi-agent perception and control perspectives. We also discuss the most significant open research questions: shared autonomy, sim-to-real transferability of existing methods, awareness of victims' conditions, coordination and interoperability in heterogeneous multi-robot systems, and active perception. The different topics in the survey are put in the context of the different challenges and constraints that various types of robots (ground, aerial, surface, or underwater) encounter in different SAR environments (maritime, urban, wilderness, or other post-disaster scenarios). The objective of this survey is to serve as an entry point to the various aspects of multi-robot SAR systems to researchers in both the machine learning and control fields by giving a global overview of the main approaches being taken in the SAR robotics area