Adoption of vehicular ad hoc networking protocols by networked robots

This paper focuses on the utilization of wireless networking in the robotics domain. Many researchers have already equipped their robots with wireless communication capabilities, stimulated by the observation that multi-robot systems tend to have several advantages over their single-robot counterparts. Typically, this integration of wireless communication is tackled in a quite pragmatic manner, only a few authors presented novel Robotic Ad Hoc Network (RANET) protocols that were designed specifically with robotic use cases in mind. This is in sharp contrast with the domain of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET). This observation is the starting point of this paper. If the results of previous efforts focusing on VANET protocols could be reused in the RANET domain, this could lead to rapid progress in the field of networked robots. To investigate this possibility, this paper provides a thorough overview of the related work in the domain of robotic and vehicular ad hoc networks. Based on this information, an exhaustive list of requirements is defined for both types. It is concluded that the most significant difference lies in the fact that VANET protocols are oriented towards low throughput messaging, while RANET protocols have to support high throughput media streaming as well. Although not always with equal importance, all other defined requirements are valid for both protocols. This leads to the conclusion that cross-fertilization between them is an appealing approach for future RANET research. To support such developments, this paper concludes with the definition of an appropriate working plan

Water Take-off and Landing Hybrid Copter approach for Maritime CONOPs

With the rise in the use of multi-vehicles teams, for maritime operations, new challenges and opportunities arise regarding the complexity and logistics of these scenarios. One way to cope with said complexity is to imbue some of these systems with the versatility of operating in more than one physical medium (air/water/land) during its normal mission cycle, maximizing their possible mission roles. The ability of having a vehicle which can operate both in the air and on the water can further expand and facilitate maritime operations by allowing new sampling, deployment and even communication scenarios. This work follows the iterations of a specific vehicle concept, through its various phases, and tracks the developments and challenges necessary to adapt a Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) to become capable of water take-off & landing, and explores its applicability as a viable operational mobile communication gateway for underwater and surface assets

Interoperability in a Heterogeneous Team of Search and Rescue Robots

Search and rescue missions are complex operations. A disaster scenario is generally unstructured, time‐varying and unpredictable. This poses several challenges for the successful deployment of unmanned technology. The variety of operational scenarios and tasks lead to the need for multiple robots of different types, domains and sizes. A priori planning of the optimal set of assets to be deployed and the definition of their mission objectives are generally not feasible as information only becomes available during mission. The ICARUS project responds to this challenge by developing a heterogeneous team composed by different and complementary robots, dynamically cooperating as an interoperable team. This chapter describes our approach to multi‐robot interoperability, understood as the ability of multiple robots to operate together, in synergy, enabling multiple teams to share data, intelligence and resources, which is the ultimate objective of ICARUS project. It also includes the analysis of the relevant standardization initiatives in multi‐robot multi‐domain systems, our implementation of an interoperability framework and several examples of multi‐robot cooperation of the ICARUS robots in realistic search and rescue missions

Design, construction, and operation of an unmanned underwater vehicle

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2009.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (leaf [62]).The practical usage of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) is limited by vehicle and operation cost, difficulty in accurate navigation, and communication between the vehicle and operator. The "Rex 2" UUV employs a system design where a submersible is connected to a float at the water's surface by means of a tether. By maintaining a surface expression, high-bandwidth radio communication to the operator becomes possible, and GPS may be used for accurate navigation. This arrangement allows the freedom of movement characteristic of untethered autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), while maintaining the live operator control and communication found with tethered remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Expanding on the design and field experiences with the MIT AUV Lab's first Reef Explorer UUV, Rex 2 was designed to be inexpensive, easy to deploy, adaptable to various payloads, and simple to use. Rex 2 was designed, built, and operated in a number of ocean field tests, validating the utility of the vehicle and system concept.by Dylan Owens.S.M

Exploiting Heterogeneity in Networks of Aerial and Ground Robotic Agents

By taking advantage of complementary communication technologies, distinct sensing functionalities and varied motion dynamics present in a heterogeneous multi-robotic network, it is possible to accomplish a main mission objective by assigning specialized sub-tasks to specific members of a robotic team. An adequate selection of the team members and an effective coordination are some of the challenges to fully exploit the unique capabilities that these types of systems can offer. Motivated by real world applications, we focus on a multi-robotic network consisting off aerial and ground agents which has the potential to provide critical support to humans in complex settings. For instance, aerial robotic relays are capable of transporting small ground mobile sensors to expand the communication range and the situational awareness of first responders in hazardous environments. In the first part of this dissertation, we extend work on manipulation of cable-suspended loads using aerial robots by solving the problem of lifting the cable-suspended load from the ground before proceeding to transport it. Since the suspended load-quadrotor system experiences switching conditions during this critical maneuver, we define a hybrid system and show that it is differentially-flat. This property facilitates the design of a nonlinear controller which tracks a waypoint-based trajectory associated with the discrete states of the hybrid system. In addition, we address the case of unknown payload mass by combining a least-squares estimation method with the designed controller. Second, we focus on the coordination of a heterogeneous team formed by a group of ground mobile sensors and a flying communication router which is deployed to sense areas of interest in a cluttered environment. Using potential field methods, we propose a controller for the coordinated mobility of the team to guarantee inter-robot and obstacle collision avoidance as well as connectivity maintenance among the ground agents while the main goal of sensing is carried out. For the case of the aerial communications relays, we combine antenna diversity with reinforcement learning to dynamically re-locate these relays so that the received signal strength is maintained above a desired threshold. Motivated by the recent interest of combining radio frequency and optical wireless communications, we envision the implementation of an optical link between micro-scale aerial and ground robots. This type of link requires maintaining a sufficient relative transmitter-receiver position for reliable communications. In the third part of this thesis, we tackle this problem. Based on the link model, we define a connectivity cone where a minimum transmission rate is guaranteed. For example, the aerial robot has to track the ground vehicle to stay inside this cone. The control must be robust to noisy measurements. Thus, we use particle filters to obtain a better estimation of the receiver position and we design a control algorithm for the flying robot to enhance the transmission rate. Also, we consider the problem of pairing a ground sensor with an aerial vehicle, both equipped with a hybrid radio-frequency/optical wireless communication system. A challenge is positioning the flying robot within optical range when the sensor location is unknown. Thus, we take advantage of the hybrid communication scheme by developing a control strategy that uses the radio signal to guide the aerial platform to the ground sensor. Once the optical-based signal strength has achieved a certain threshold, the robot hovers within optical range. Finally, we investigate the problem of building an alliance of agents with different skills in order to satisfy the requirements imposed by a given task. We find this alliance, known also as a coalition, by using a bipartite graph in which edges represent the relation between agent capabilities and required resources for task execution. Using this graph, we build a coalition whose total capability resources can satisfy the task resource requirements. Also, we study the heterogeneity of the formed coalition to analyze how it is affected for instance by the amount of capability resources present in the agents

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

A review of unmanned vehicles for the detection and monitoring of marine fauna

Recent technology developments have turned present-day unmanned systems into realistic alternatives to traditional marine animal survey methods. Benefits include longer survey durations, improved mission safety, mission repeatability, and reduced operational costs. We review the present status of unmanned vehicles suitable for marine animal monitoring conducted in relation to industrial offshore activities, highlighting which systems are suitable for three main monitoring types: population, mitigation, and focal animal monitoring. We describe the technical requirements for each of these monitoring types and discuss the operational aspects. The selection of a specific sensor/platform combination depends critically on the target species and its behaviour. The technical specifications of unmanned platforms and sensors also need to be selected based on the surrounding conditions of a particular offshore project, such as the area of interest, the survey requirements and operational constraints

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