Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning for Inspection of Offshore Wind Farms: A Review

Offshore wind turbine (OWT) inspection research is receiving increasing interest as the sector grows worldwide. Wind farms are far from emergency services and experience extreme weather and winds. This hazardous environment lends itself to unmanned approaches, reducing human exposure to risk. Increasing automation in inspections can reduce human effort and financial costs. Despite the benefits, research on automating inspection is sparse. This work proposes that OWT inspection can be described as a multi-robot coverage path planning problem. Reviews of multi-robot coverage exist, but to the best of our knowledge, none captures the domain-specific aspects of an OWT inspection. In this paper, we present a review on the current state of the art of multi-robot coverage to identify gaps in research relating to coverage for OWT inspection. To perform a qualitative study, the PICo (population, intervention, and context) framework was used. The retrieved works are analysed according to three aspects of coverage approaches: environmental modelling, decision making, and coordination. Based on the reviewed studies and the conducted analysis, candidate approaches are proposed for the structural coverage of an OWT. Future research should involve the adaptation of voxel-based ray-tracing pose generation to UAVs and exploration, applying semantic labels to tasks to facilitate heterogeneous coverage and semantic online task decomposition to identify the coverage target during the run time.</jats:p

De bello robotico : an ethical assessment of military robotics

This article provides a detailed description of robotic weapons and unmanned systems currently used by the U.S. Military and its allies, and an ethical assessment of their actual or potential use on the battlefield. Firstly, trough a review of scientific literature, reports, and newspaper articles, a catalogue of ethical problems related to military robotics is compiled. Secondly, possible solutions for these problems are offered, by relying also on analytic tools provided by the new field of roboethics. Finally, the article explores possible future developments of military robotics and present six reasons why a war between humans and automata is unlikely to happen in the 21st century

NASA Developmental Biology Workshop: A summary

The Life Sciences Division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of its continuing assessment of its research program, convened a workshop on Developmental Biology to determine whether there are important scientific studies in this area which warrant continued or expanded NASA support. The workshop consisted of six panels, each of which focused on a single major phylogenetic group. The objectives of each panel were to determine whether gravity plays a role in the ontogeny of their subject group, to determine whether the microgravity of spaceflight can be used to help understand fundamental problems in developmental biology, to develop the rationale and hypotheses for conducting NASA-relevant research in development biology both on the ground and in space, and to identify any unique equipment and facilities that would be required to support both ground-based and spaceflight experiments

2020 NASA Technology Taxonomy

This document is an update (new photos used) of the PDF version of the 2020 NASA Technology Taxonomy that will be available to download on the OCT Public Website. The updated 2020 NASA Technology Taxonomy, or "technology dictionary", uses a technology discipline based approach that realigns like-technologies independent of their application within the NASA mission portfolio. This tool is meant to serve as a common technology discipline-based communication tool across the agency and with its partners in other government agencies, academia, industry, and across the world

An Integrated Platform to Increase the Range/Endurance of Unmanned Helicopters

Class I (kg) autonomous helicopters are becoming increasingly popular for a wide range of non-military applications such as, surveillance, reconnaissance, traffic monitoring, emergency response, agricultural spraying, and many other eye in the sky missions. However, an efficient landing/takeoff platform with refueling/recharging capabilities has not yet been developed to increase the endurance and decrease the cost for Class I helicopters. This dissertation presents a three-prong approach for increasing the range and endurance of Class I autonomous helicopters, which will then spur demand by non-military organizations wanting to take advantage of such capabilities and, therefore, drop their price. The proposed Intelligent Self-Leveling and Nodal Docking System (ISLANDS) is developed as a mobile refueling/recharging station, which is one part of a three-pronged approach. ISLANDS is an electro-mechanical system that provides a safe landing surface for helicopters on gradients of up to 60%. ISLANDS operates off the grid and, therefore, must provide its own energy sources for the refueling/recharging tasks it performs. A method for determining ISLANDS\u27 energy needs for refueling/recharging of gas and/or electric helicopters for an arbitrary number of days is provided as the second part of the three-pronged approach. The final step for increasing autonomous helicopter endurance is a method for determining placement of ISLANDS nodes in the area to be serviced ensuring that the helicopters can achieve their mission goal. In this dissertation all aspects of the three-pronged approach are presented and explained in detail, providing experimental results that validate the proposed methods to solve each of the three problems. A case study using Commercially Off The Shelf (COTS) components that shows how all the parts of the proposed three-pronged solution work together for increasing the endurance of Class I helicopters is provided as a conclusion to the dissertation

3D locomotion biomimetic robot fish with haptic feedback

This thesis developed a biomimetic robot fish and built a novel haptic robot fish system based on the kinematic modelling and three-dimentional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) hydrodynamic analysis. The most important contribution is the successful CFD simulation of the robot fish, supporting users in understanding the hydrodynamic properties around it

Naval Research Program 2021 Annual Report

NPS NRP Annual ReportThe Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Naval Research Program (NRP) is funded by the Chief of Naval Operations and supports research projects for the Navy and Marine Corps. The NPS NRP serves as a launch-point for new initiatives which posture naval forces to meet current and future operational warfighter challenges. NRP research projects are led by individual research teams that conduct research and through which NPS expertise is developed and maintained. The primary mechanism for obtaining NPS NRP support is through participation at NPS Naval Research Working Group (NRWG) meetings that bring together fleet topic sponsors, NPS faculty members, and students to discuss potential research topics and initiatives.Chief of Naval Operations (CNO)Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

Fourth Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 90)

The proceedings of the SOAR workshop are presented. The technical areas included are as follows: Automation and Robotics; Environmental Interactions; Human Factors; Intelligent Systems; and Life Sciences. NASA and Air Force programmatic overviews and panel sessions were also held in each technical area

Developing a Behavioural Model for Predicting Public Attitudes towards the Use of Unmanned Aerial Systems

This research aimed at developing a conceptual model for predicting public attitudes towards unmanned aircraft and the intention to purchase. Based on technology acceptance theory and risk theory, the influence of perceived benefit, perceived risk and perceived control, has been examined. Research findings, based on PLS-SEM analyses, revealed that perceived benefit has an effect on attitudes and intention. Additionally, perceived risk influenced attitudes, whereas perceived control had no effect on both constructs