Underwater Vehicles

For the latest twenty to thirty years, a significant number of AUVs has been created for the solving of wide spectrum of scientific and applied tasks of ocean development and research. For the short time period the AUVs have shown the efficiency at performance of complex search and inspection works and opened a number of new important applications. Initially the information about AUVs had mainly review-advertising character but now more attention is paid to practical achievements, problems and systems technologies. AUVs are losing their prototype status and have become a fully operational, reliable and effective tool and modern multi-purpose AUVs represent the new class of underwater robotic objects with inherent tasks and practical applications, particular features of technology, systems structure and functional properties

Ethical Control of Unmanned Systems: lifesaving/lethal scenarios for naval operations

Prepared for: Raytheon Missiles & Defense under NCRADA-NPS-19-0227This research in Ethical Control of Unmanned Systems applies precepts of Network Optional Warfare (NOW) to develop a three-step Mission Execution Ontology (MEO) methodology for validating, simulating, and implementing mission orders for unmanned systems. First, mission orders are represented in ontologies that are understandable by humans and readable by machines. Next, the MEO is validated and tested for logical coherence using Semantic Web standards. The validated MEO is refined for implementation in simulation and visualization. This process is iterated until the MEO is ready for implementation. This methodology is applied to four Naval scenarios in order of increasing challenges that the operational environment and the adversary impose on the Human-Machine Team. The extent of challenge to Ethical Control in the scenarios is used to refine the MEO for the unmanned system. The research also considers Data-Centric Security and blockchain distributed ledger as enabling technologies for Ethical Control. Data-Centric Security is a combination of structured messaging, efficient compression, digital signature, and document encryption, in correct order, for round-trip messaging. Blockchain distributed ledger has potential to further add integrity measures for aggregated message sets, confirming receipt/response/sequencing without undetected message loss. When implemented, these technologies together form the end-to-end data security that ensures mutual trust and command authority in real-world operational environments—despite the potential presence of interfering network conditions, intermittent gaps, or potential opponent intercept. A coherent Ethical Control approach to command and control of unmanned systems is thus feasible. Therefore, this research concludes that maintaining human control of unmanned systems at long ranges of time-duration and distance, in denied, degraded, and deceptive environments, is possible through well-defined mission orders and data security technologies. Finally, as the human role remains essential in Ethical Control of unmanned systems, this research recommends the development of an unmanned system qualification process for Naval operations, as well as additional research prioritized based on urgency and impact.Raytheon Missiles & DefenseRaytheon Missiles & Defense (RMD).Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Underwater Robots Part I: Current Systems and Problem Pose

International audienceThis paper constitutes the first part of a general overview of underwater robotics. The second part is titled: Underwater Robots Part II: existing solutions and open issues

Cooperative and Multimodal Capabilities Enhancement in the CERNTAURO Human–Robot Interface for Hazardous and Underwater Scenarios

The use of remote robotic systems for inspection and maintenance in hazardous environments is a priority for all tasks potentially dangerous for humans. However, currently available robotic systems lack that level of usability which would allow inexperienced operators to accomplish complex tasks. Moreover, the task’s complexity increases drastically when a single operator is required to control multiple remote agents (for example, when picking up and transporting big objects). In this paper, a system allowing an operator to prepare and configure cooperative behaviours for multiple remote agents is presented. The system is part of a human–robot interface that was designed at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, to perform remote interventions in its particle accelerator complex, as part of the CERNTAURO project. In this paper, the modalities of interaction with the remote robots are presented in detail. The multimodal user interface enables the user to activate assisted cooperative behaviours according to a mission plan. The multi-robot interface has been validated at CERN in its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) mockup using a team of two mobile robotic platforms, each one equipped with a robotic manipulator. Moreover, great similarities were identified between the CERNTAURO and the TWINBOT projects, which aim to create usable robotic systems for underwater manipulations. Therefore, the cooperative behaviours were validated within a multi-robot pipe transport scenario in a simulated underwater environment, experimenting more advanced vision techniques. The cooperative teleoperation can be coupled with additional assisted tools such as vision-based tracking and grasping determination of metallic objects, and communication protocols design. The results show that the cooperative behaviours enable a single user to face a robotic intervention with more than one robot in a safer way

AN INTEGRATED SIMULATION APPROACH FOR AUV IMAGE-BASED SLAM NAVIGATION

This thesis develops a simulation framework for undersea feature-based navigation. Using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to locate an item of interest on the seafloor is a capability that would greatly benefit the Navy. AUVs provide a gateway toward removing the workforce requirement; however, they are still costly both in acquisition and maintenance. A solution to this problem is using two AUVs, one with increased capability and charged with finding and marking seafloor items with a beacon. An expendable AUV outfitted with cost-effective sensors would relocate, identify and neutralize the threat. Using undersea imaging to correlate seafloor images to an a priori image mosaic together with a ultra short baseline (USBL) beacon allows the AUV to complete challenging mission objectives without traditional navigation systems. Incremental Smoothing and Mapping 2 (iSAM2) is a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) technique that can be used by the AUV for position localization and is an appropriate technique, with image and USBL sensing, for real-time navigation operations. A simulation framework provides the ability to evaluate an AUV's performance while minimizing the risk of real-world operations. The framework is composed of a software architecture that allows for testing using the same software applied in real-world operations. This thesis demonstrates this framework and provides analysis for its usability for image-based SLAM.Lieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Underwater intervention robotics: An outline of the Italian national project Maris

The Italian national project MARIS (Marine Robotics for Interventions) pursues the strategic objective of studying, developing, and integrating technologies and methodologies to enable the development of autonomous underwater robotic systems employable for intervention activities. These activities are becoming progressively more typical for the underwater offshore industry, for search-and-rescue operations, and for underwater scientific missions. Within such an ambitious objective, the project consortium also intends to demonstrate the achievable operational capabilities at a proof-of-concept level by integrating the results with prototype experimental systems

Task-space dynamic control of underwater robots

This thesis is concerned with the control aspects for underwater tasks performed by marine robots. The mathematical models of an underwater vehicle and an underwater vehicle with an onboard manipulator are discussed together with their associated properties. The task-space regulation problem for an underwater vehicle is addressed where the desired target is commonly specified as a point. A new control technique is proposed where the multiple targets are defined as sub-regions. A fuzzy technique is used to handle these multiple sub-region criteria effectively. Due to the unknown gravitational and buoyancy forces, an adaptive term is adopted in the proposed controller. An extension to a region boundary-based control law is then proposed for an underwater vehicle to illustrate the flexibility of the region reaching concept. In this novel controller, a desired target is defined as a boundary instead of a point or region. For a mapping of the uncertain restoring forces, a least-squares estimation algorithm and the inverse Jacobian matrix are utilised in the adaptive control law. To realise a new tracking control concept for a kinematically redundant robot, subregion tracking control schemes with a sub-tasks objective are developed for a UVMS. In this concept, the desired objective is specified as a moving sub-region instead of a trajectory. In addition, due to the system being kinematically redundant, the controller also enables the use of self-motion of the system to perform sub-tasks (drag minimisation, obstacle avoidance, manipulability and avoidance of mechanical joint limits)