394 research outputs found
Internet of Underwater Things and Big Marine Data Analytics -- A Comprehensive Survey
The Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) is an emerging communication
ecosystem developed for connecting underwater objects in maritime and
underwater environments. The IoUT technology is intricately linked with
intelligent boats and ships, smart shores and oceans, automatic marine
transportations, positioning and navigation, underwater exploration, disaster
prediction and prevention, as well as with intelligent monitoring and security.
The IoUT has an influence at various scales ranging from a small scientific
observatory, to a midsized harbor, and to covering global oceanic trade. The
network architecture of IoUT is intrinsically heterogeneous and should be
sufficiently resilient to operate in harsh environments. This creates major
challenges in terms of underwater communications, whilst relying on limited
energy resources. Additionally, the volume, velocity, and variety of data
produced by sensors, hydrophones, and cameras in IoUT is enormous, giving rise
to the concept of Big Marine Data (BMD), which has its own processing
challenges. Hence, conventional data processing techniques will falter, and
bespoke Machine Learning (ML) solutions have to be employed for automatically
learning the specific BMD behavior and features facilitating knowledge
extraction and decision support. The motivation of this paper is to
comprehensively survey the IoUT, BMD, and their synthesis. It also aims for
exploring the nexus of BMD with ML. We set out from underwater data collection
and then discuss the family of IoUT data communication techniques with an
emphasis on the state-of-the-art research challenges. We then review the suite
of ML solutions suitable for BMD handling and analytics. We treat the subject
deductively from an educational perspective, critically appraising the material
surveyed.Comment: 54 pages, 11 figures, 19 tables, IEEE Communications Surveys &
Tutorials, peer-reviewed academic journa
Algorithms for propagation-aware underwater ranging and localization
MenciĂłn Internacional en el tĂtulo de doctorWhile oceans occupy most of our planet, their exploration and conservation are one of
the crucial research problems of modern time. Underwater localization stands among the
key issues on the way to the proper inspection and monitoring of this significant part of our
world. In this thesis, we investigate and tackle different challenges related to underwater
ranging and localization. In particular, we focus on algorithms that consider underwater
acoustic channel properties. This group of algorithms utilizes additional information
about the environment and its impact on acoustic signal propagation, in order to improve
the accuracy of location estimates, or to achieve a reduced complexity, or a reduced
amount of resources (e.g., anchor nodes) compared to traditional algorithms.
First, we tackle the problem of passive range estimation using the differences in the
times of arrival of multipath replicas of a transmitted acoustic signal. This is a costand
energy- effective algorithm that can be used for the localization of autonomous
underwater vehicles (AUVs), and utilizes information about signal propagation. We study
the accuracy of this method in the simplified case of constant sound speed profile (SSP)
and compare it to a more realistic case with various non-constant SSP. We also propose
an auxiliary quantity called effective sound speed. This quantity, when modeling acoustic
propagation via ray models, takes into account the difference between rectilinear and
non-rectilinear sound ray paths. According to our evaluation, this offers improved range
estimation results with respect to standard algorithms that consider the actual value of
the speed of sound.
We then propose an algorithm suitable for the non-invasive tracking of AUVs or
vocalizing marine animals, using only a single receiver. This algorithm evaluates the
underwater acoustic channel impulse response differences induced by a diverse sea
bottom profile, and proposes a computationally- and energy-efficient solution for passive
localization.
Finally, we propose another algorithm to solve the issue of 3D acoustic localization
and tracking of marine fauna. To reach the expected degree of accuracy, more sensors
are often required than are available in typical commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) phased
arrays found, e.g., in ultra short baseline (USBL) systems. Direct combination of multiple
COTS arrays may be constrained by array body elements, and lead to breaking the optimal array element spacing, or the desired array layout. Thus, the application of
state-of-the-art direction of arrival (DoA) estimation algorithms may not be possible. We
propose a solution for passive 3D localization and tracking using a wideband acoustic
array of arbitrary shape, and validate the algorithm in multiple experiments, involving
both active and passive targets.Part of the research in this thesis has been supported by the EU H2020 program under
project SYMBIOSIS (G.A. no. 773753).This work has been supported by IMDEA Networks InstitutePrograma de Doctorado en IngenierĂa Telemática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Paul Daniel Mitchell.- Secretario: Antonio Fernández Anta.- Vocal: Santiago Zazo Bell
Interoperability Among Unmanned Maritime Vehicles: Review and First In-field Experimentation
Complex maritime missions, both above and below the surface, have traditionally been carried out by manned surface ships and submarines equipped with advanced sensor systems. Unmanned Maritime Vehicles (UMVs) are increasingly demonstrating their potential for improving existing naval capabilities due to their rapid deployability, easy scalability, and high reconfigurability, offering a reduction in both operational time and cost. In addition, they mitigate the risk to personnel by leaving the man far-from-the-risk but in-the-loop of decision making. In the long-term, a clear interoperability framework between unmanned systems, human operators, and legacy platforms will be crucial for effective joint operations planning and execution. However, the present multi-vendor multi-protocol solutions in multi-domain UMVs activities are hard to interoperate without common mission control interfaces and communication protocol schemes. Furthermore, the underwater domain presents significant challenges that cannot be satisfied with the solutions developed for terrestrial networks. In this paper, the interoperability topic is discussed blending a review of the technological growth from 2000 onwards with recent authors' in-field experience; finally, important research directions for the future are given. Within the broad framework of interoperability in general, the paper focuses on the aspect of interoperability among UMVs not neglecting the role of the human operator in the loop. The picture emerging from the review demonstrates that interoperability is currently receiving a high level of attention with a great and diverse deal of effort. Besides, the manuscript describes the experience from a sea trial exercise, where interoperability has been demonstrated by integrating heterogeneous autonomous UMVs into the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) network, using different robotic middlewares and acoustic modem technologies to implement a multistatic active sonar system. A perspective for the interoperability in marine robotics missions emerges in the paper, through a discussion of current capabilities, in-field experience and future advanced technologies unique to UMVs. Nonetheless, their application spread is slowed down by the lack of human confidence. In fact, an interoperable system-of-systems of autonomous UMVs will require operators involved only at a supervisory level. As trust develops, endorsed by stable and mature interoperability, human monitoring will be diminished to exploit the tremendous potential of fully autonomous UMVs
Adapting Deep Learning for Underwater Acoustic Communication Channel Modeling
The recent emerging applications of novel underwater systems lead to increasing demand for underwater acoustic (UWA) communication and networking techniques. However, due to the challenging UWA channel characteristics, conventional wireless techniques are rarely applicable to UWA communication and networking. The cognitive and software-defined communication and networking are considered promising architecture of a novel UWA system design. As an essential component of a cognitive communication system, the modeling and prediction of the UWA channel impulse response (CIR) with deep generative models are studied in this work.
Firstly, an underwater acoustic communication and networking testbed is developed for conducting various simulations and field experiments. The proposed test-bed also demonstrated the capabilities of developing and testing SDN protocols for a UWA network in both simulation and field experiments.
Secondly, due to the lack of appropriate UWA CIR data sets for deep learning, a series of field UWA channel experiments have been conducted across a shallow freshwater river. Abundant UWA CIR data under various weather conditions have been collected and studied. The environmental factors that significantly affect the UWA channel state, including the solar radiation rate, the air temperature, the ice cover, the precipitation rate, etc., are analyzed in the case studies. The obtained UWA CIR data set with significant correlations to weather conditions can benefit future deep-learning research on UWA channels.
Thirdly, a Wasserstein conditional generative adversarial network (WCGAN) is proposed to model the observed UWA CIR distribution. A power-weighted Jensen–Shannon divergence (JSD) is proposed to measure the similarity between the generated distribution and the experimental observations. The CIR samples generated by the WCGAN model show a lower power-weighted JSD than conventional estimated stochastic distributions.
Finally, a modified conditional generative adversarial network (CGAN) model is proposed for predicting the UWA CIR distribution in the 15-minute range near future. This prediction model takes a sequence of historical and forecast weather information with a recent CIR observation as the conditional input. The generated CIR sample predictions also show a lower power-weighted JSD than conventional estimated stochastic distributions
Smart Wireless Sensor Networks
The recent development of communication and sensor technology results in the growth of a new attractive and challenging area - wireless sensor networks (WSNs). A wireless sensor network which consists of a large number of sensor nodes is deployed in environmental fields to serve various applications. Facilitated with the ability of wireless communication and intelligent computation, these nodes become smart sensors which do not only perceive ambient physical parameters but also be able to process information, cooperate with each other and self-organize into the network. These new features assist the sensor nodes as well as the network to operate more efficiently in terms of both data acquisition and energy consumption. Special purposes of the applications require design and operation of WSNs different from conventional networks such as the internet. The network design must take into account of the objectives of specific applications. The nature of deployed environment must be considered. The limited of sensor nodesďż˝ resources such as memory, computational ability, communication bandwidth and energy source are the challenges in network design. A smart wireless sensor network must be able to deal with these constraints as well as to guarantee the connectivity, coverage, reliability and security of network's operation for a maximized lifetime. This book discusses various aspects of designing such smart wireless sensor networks. Main topics includes: design methodologies, network protocols and algorithms, quality of service management, coverage optimization, time synchronization and security techniques for sensor networks
Who wrote this scientific text?
The IEEE bibliographic database contains a number of proven duplications with indication of the original paper(s) copied. This corpus is used to test a method for the detection of hidden intertextuality (commonly named "plagiarism"). The intertextual distance, combined with the sliding window and with various classification techniques, identifies these duplications with a very low risk of error. These experiments also show that several factors blur the identity of the scientific author, including variable group authorship and the high levels of intertextuality accepted, and sometimes desired, in scientific papers on the same topic
Advances in Intelligent Robotics and Collaborative Automation
This book provides an overview of a series of advanced research lines in robotics as well as of design and development methodologies for intelligent robots and their intelligent components. It represents a selection of extended versions of the best papers presented at the Seventh IEEE International Workshop on Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology and Applications IDAACS 2013 that were related to these topics. Its contents integrate state of the art computational intelligence based techniques for automatic robot control to novel distributed sensing and data integration methodologies that can be applied to intelligent robotics and automation systems. The objective of the text was to provide an overview of some of the problems in the field of robotic systems and intelligent automation and the approaches and techniques that relevant research groups within this area are employing to try to solve them.The contributions of the different authors have been grouped into four main sections:• Robots• Control and Intelligence• Sensing• Collaborative automationThe chapters have been structured to provide an easy to follow introduction to the topics that are addressed, including the most relevant references, so that anyone interested in this field can get started in the area
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