612 research outputs found
Toward autonomous exploration in confined underwater environments
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of John Wiley & Sons for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Field Robotics 33 (2016): 994-1012, doi:10.1002/rob.21640.In this field note we detail the operations and discuss the results of an experiment conducted
in the unstructured environment of an underwater cave complex, using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). For this experiment the AUV was equipped with two acoustic
sonar to simultaneously map the caves’ horizontal and vertical surfaces. Although the
caves’ spatial complexity required AUV guidance by a diver, this field deployment successfully demonstrates a scan matching algorithm in a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) framework that significantly reduces and bounds the localization error for fully
autonomous navigation. These methods are generalizable for AUV exploration in confined
underwater environments where surfacing or pre-deployment of localization equipment are
not feasible and may provide a useful step toward AUV utilization as a response tool in
confined underwater disaster areas.This research work was partially sponsored by the EU FP7-Projects: Tecniospring-
Marie Curie (TECSPR13-1-0052), MORPH (FP7-ICT-2011-7-288704), Eurofleets2 (FP7-INF-2012-312762),
and the National Science Foundation (OCE-0955674)
TRIDENT: A Framework for Autonomous Underwater Intervention
TRIDENT is a STREP project recently approved by the European Commission whose proposal
was submitted to the ICT call 4 of the 7th Framework Program. The project proposes a new methodology
for multipurpose underwater intervention tasks. To that end, a cooperative team formed with an
Autonomous Surface Craft and an Intervention Autonomous Underwater Vehicle will be used. The
proposed methodology splits the mission in two stages mainly devoted to survey and intervention tasks,
respectively. The project brings together research skills specific to the marine environments in navigation
and mapping for underwater robotics, multi-sensory perception, intelligent control architectures, vehiclemanipulator
systems and dexterous manipulation. TRIDENT is a three years project and its start is planned
by first months of 2010.This work is partially supported by the European Commission
through FP7-ICT2009-248497 projec
Intelligent Navigation for a Solar Powered Unmanned Underwater Vehicle
In this paper, an intelligent navigation system for
an unmanned underwater vehicle powered by renewable
energy and designed for shadow water inspection in
missions of a long duration is proposed. The system is
composed of an underwater vehicle, which tows a surface
vehicle. The surface vehicle is a small boat with
photovoltaic panels, a methanol fuel cell and
communication equipment, which provides energy and
communication to the underwater vehicle. The underwater
vehicle has sensors to monitor the underwater
environment such as sidescan sonar and a video camera in
a flexible configuration and sensors to measure the
physical and chemical parameters of water quality on
predefined paths for long distances. The underwater
vehicle implements a biologically inspired neural
architecture for autonomous intelligent navigation.
Navigation is carried out by integrating a kinematic
adaptive neuro‐controller for trajectory tracking and an
obstacle avoidance adaptive neuro‐ controller. The
autonomous underwater vehicle is capable of operating
during long periods of observation and monitoring. This
autonomous vehicle is a good tool for observing large areas
of sea, since it operates for long periods of time due to the
contribution of renewable energy. It correlates all sensor
data for time and geodetic position. This vehicle has been
used for monitoring the Mar Menor lagoon.Supported by the Coastal Monitoring
System for the Mar Menor (CMS‐ 463.01.08_CLUSTER)
project founded by the Regional Government of Murcia,
by the SICUVA project (Control and Navigation System
for AUV Oceanographic Monitoring Missions. REF:
15357/PI/10) founded by the Seneca Foundation of
Regional Government of Murcia and by the DIVISAMOS
project (Design of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
for Inspections and oceanographic mission‐UPCT: DPI‐
2009‐14744‐C03‐02) founded by the Spanish Ministry of
Science and Innovation from Spain
Classes Of Control Architectures For AUV: A Brief Survey.
This paper provides a brief survey on the control architectures used in the underwater system and robotics research for AUV application
Underwater Exploration and Mapping
This paper analyzes the open challenges of exploring and mapping in the underwater realm with the goal of identifying research opportunities that will enable an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) to robustly explore different environments. A taxonomy of environments based on their 3D structure is presented together with an analysis on how that influences the camera placement. The difference between exploration and coverage is presented and how they dictate different motion strategies. Loop closure, while critical for the accuracy of the resulting map, proves to be particularly challenging due to the limited field of view and the sensitivity to viewing direction. Experimental results of enforcing loop closures in underwater caves demonstrate a novel navigation strategy. Dense 3D mapping, both online and offline, as well as other sensor configurations are discussed following the presented taxonomy. Experimental results from field trials illustrate the above analysis.acceptedVersio
Three-dimensional visualization of mission planning and control for the NPS autonomous underwater vehicle
The article of record may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/48.107150Oceanic Engineering, IEEE Journal ofThe Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is constructing a small autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with an onboard mission control computer. The mission controller software for this vehicle is a knowledge-based artificial intelligence (AI) system requiring thorough analysis and testing before the AUV is operational. The manner in which rapid prototyping of this software has been demonstrated by developing a controller code on a LISP machine and using an Ethernet link with a graphics workstation to simulate the controller's environment is discussed. The development of a testing simulator using a knowledge engineering environment (KEE) expert system shell that examines AUV controller subsystems and vehicle models before integrating them with the full AUV for its test environment missions is discussed. This AUV simulator utilizes an interactive mission planning control console and is fully autonomous once initial parameters are selecte
Towards autonomous localization and mapping of AUVs: a survey
Purpose The main purpose of this paper is to investigate two key elements of localization and mapping of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), i.e. to overview various sensors and algorithms used for underwater localization and mapping, and to make suggestions for future research.
Design/methodology/approach The authors first review various sensors and algorithms used for AUVs in the terms of basic working principle, characters, their advantages and disadvantages. The statistical analysis is carried out by studying 35 AUV platforms according to the application circumstances of sensors and algorithms.
Findings As real-world applications have different requirements and specifications, it is necessary to select the most appropriate one by balancing various factors such as accuracy, cost, size, etc. Although highly accurate localization and mapping in an underwater environment is very difficult, more and more accurate and robust navigation solutions will be achieved with the development of both sensors and algorithms.
Research limitations/implications This paper provides an overview of the state of art underwater localisation and mapping algorithms and systems. No experiments are conducted for verification.
Practical implications The paper will give readers a clear guideline to find suitable underwater localisation and mapping algorithms and systems for their practical applications in hand.
Social implications There is a wide range of audiences who will benefit from reading this comprehensive survey of autonomous localisation and mapping of UAVs.
Originality/value The paper will provide useful information and suggestions to research students, engineers and scientists who work in the field of autonomous underwater vehicles
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