Seabed monitoring with Girona 500 AUV working as HROV

This paper presents the use of Girona 500 AUV as a Hybrid ROV (HROV) to inspect underwater habitats by combining basic teleoperation and automatic way-point following. This duality allows safe movements, when inspecting visually the seabed, together with precise way-point movements, when mapping or reaching the area. Also, the use of a HROV containing its own energy simplifies the management of the umbilical cable, which can be smaller, and integrates all safety measures of an AUV. The Girona 500 AUV has been tested acting as HROV during 3 campaigns at 80 metres depth in a project for evaluating the state of transplanted gorgonians.Peer Reviewe

Industrial dynamics, innovation and the urban system in Spain: trajectories of medium-sized cities

[ES] El artículo pretende un primer acercamiento a las dinámicas industriales de las ciudades intermedias españolas. Además de una revisión de las teorías económicas convencionales del crecimiento industrial localizado, en la explicación se incide en claves internas y específicas para cada ciudad, como la posible existencia de sistemas productivos capaces de activar círculos virtuosos de innovación. Para ello se analizan la evolución y estructura sectorial dentro del sistema urbano español, a partir de los datos de empresas y empleo de la Seguridad Social (2000-2006), explorando la asociación espacial de ambos aspectos con diversos indicadores de innovación económico-empresarial.[EN] The article endeavours to provide an approach to the industrial dynamics of mediumsized Spanish cities. In addition to containing a survey of the conventional economic theories on localised industrial growth, the explanation stresses internal keys specific to each city, such as the possible existence of production systems that can activate virtuous circles of innovation. Evolution and sector structure within the Spanish urban system are therefore analysed, on the basis of business and employment figures from Social Security (2000-2006), exploring the spatial association of both aspects with diverse indicators of economic and business innovation.El artículo forma parte del proyecto de investigación sobre Estrategias de innovación industrial y desarrollo económico en las ciudades intermedias de España, financiado por la Fundación BBVA (2006-2008).Peer reviewe

Marine ecosystems observation by a cooperative AUV in the PLOME project

To improve our understanding of how marine ecosystems function, it is crucial to quantify their processes using proper spatio-temporal multiparametric monitoring techniques. Science and innovative technologies must play a central role in developing the Blue Growth in a sustainable manner, where advances in enabling technologies such as remote sensing, modelling, AI and autonomous systems, will enhance our capacity to monitor and predict, assess and manage ecosystems. The PLOME project proposes a spatially adaptive, non-invasive, modular platform of independent and wirelessly connected benthic stations and AUVs to intelligently observe, monitor and map marine ecosystems, during long-lasting periods with real-time supervision. The monitoring solution has a simple deployment and is easy-to-move from an experimental site to another, without any cable installation, for coastal and deep water environments. Stations provide continuous and intensive temporal observation, while AUVs can provide such intensive measurement at spatial level, when they undock for a mission from a station in which they previously recharged batteries and transmitted information. The PLOME project will demonstrate the proposed concept in two scenarios. The first one, involves testing independent capabilities in a real deep-sea scenario, while the second one entails a oneweek demonstration in shallow water, where an AUV will be operated from a docking station. This paper describes the Girona 1000 AUV from the Universitat de Girona that will be used for the deep tests , conducted at depths ranging from 200 to 400 meters. The AUV will be used in cooperation with two fixed stations developed by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Acoustic communications and ranges between the AUV and the stations will be used to coordinate the AUV’s work and to improve its navigation. Optical communications will be used to transmit data to the stations gathered from the AUV observations. The AUV will integrate a multimodal sensor payload, including an optical camera and LED lighting system, a laser for microbathymetry and a forward-looking sonar for acoustic mapping. The AUV will also be able to process some of the data to transmit relevant information to the stations. Deep learning techniques will be used in real-time to detect species on the optical camera images, 3D point-clouds will be generated to describe the seabed’s profile, and onboard acoustic mosaicking will generate an acoustic map of the seabed.Peer Reviewe

A new approach to use marine robotic networks for ecosystem monitoring and management: The PLOME Project

4th Marine Imaging Workshop, 3-6 October 2022, Brest, FranceOur understanding of marine ecosystem functioning and processes relies on adequate spatio-temporal multiparametric monitoring procedures. Over the next 3 years, the Project PLOME (Platforms for Long-lasting Observation of Marine Ecosystems) will implement a spatially adaptive and autonomous network of easy-to-use benthic landers with dockable Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs)ñ This network will be used to intelligently video-monitor and map marine ecosystems and their environment from coastal to deep-sea areas. All platforms will be connected via acoustic or optical communication and will operate over periods of weeks to months with real-time supervision. Stations will provide continuous and intensive temporal observations, while dockable AUVs (with battery recharge and data downloading capability) will provide intensive measurements at various spatial scales, using intelligent and adaptive trajectories to explore surrounding areas. Biological, geochemical and oceanographic data will be generated by an array of sensors including acoustic receivers and cameras. Images will be processed in real-time for species classification and tracking, using advanced data analysis and Deep Learning techniques. Metadata will be communicated between landers and AUVs and transmitted opportunistically whenever an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) connects the platform via aerial communications (i.e. GSM and satellite communications, depending on form distance to shore). The unattended operation will also be possible with an innovation of pop-up buoys that will allow data transfer to the surface from landers and UAVs to be relayed once the pop-up buoys reach the surface. Complex ecological indicators for ecosystem management will be computed from the collected data, by applying advanced computer vision techniques to classify, count and size individuals in video images and to generate multimodal maps of the seabed. A pipeline for automated data treatment will be tailored for multiparametric analyses to derive cause-effect relationships between biological variables and the physical habitatsPeer reviewe

Forward-looking sonar mosaicing for underwater environments

Vehicle operations in underwater environments are frequently compromised by poor visibility conditions. In this thesis, we propose an end-to-end mosaicing framework tailored to the characteristics of forward-looking sonar imagery in order to build consistent overviews of planar underwater areas regardless of water visibility. Our solution targets versatility: it enables the generation of acoustic mosaics that involve roto-translational motions and comprise different vehicle tracklines, it is suitable for a wide range of scenarios, it can be applicable on data collected with minimally instrumented vehicles, and it allows both offline and real-time operation. To this end, we address the key problem of image registration on forward-looking sonar images and we provide solutions for the global alignment of the sonar frames along the trajectory as well as their blending into a smooth acoustic mosaic. To validate the full proposed framework, an extensive experimental section is reported showing successful results in relevant field applications.Freqüentment, les operacions amb vehicles en entorns submarins estan condicionades a la visibilitat de l’aigua. En aquesta tesi, proposem un sistema complet per a la construcció de mapes subaquàtics adaptat a les característiques dels sonars de visió frontal, per tal de construir mosaics d’imatges acústiques independentment de la visibilitat de l’aigua. La solució proposada permet la generació de mapes que involucren moviments roto-translacionals i múltiples transectes, és adequada per un ampli ventall d’escenaris i permet la generació de mosaics tant en mode post-processat com en temps real. Proposem un nou mètode per al registre d'imatges d'aquest tipus de sonar, així com també solucions per a dur a terme l'alineament global de les imatges al llarg d'una trajectòria i per a fusionar les imatges en un mosaic acústic. Per tal de validar el funcionament de tot el sistema es presenten experiments demonstrant resultats satisfactòris en el marc d'aplicacions reals

Fourier-based registration for robust forward-looking sonar mosaicing in low-visibility underwater environments

Vehicle operations in underwater environments are often compromised by poor visibility conditions. For instance, the perception range of optical devices is heavily constrained in turbid waters, thus complicating navigation and mapping tasks in environments such as harbors, bays, or rivers. A new generation of high-definition forward-looking sonars providing acoustic imagery at high frame rates has recently emerged as a promising alternative for working under these challenging conditions. However, the characteristics of the sonar data introduce difficulties in image registration, a key step in mosaicing and motion estimation applications. In this work, we propose the use of a Fourier-based registration technique capable of handling the low resolution, noise, and artifacts associated with sonar image formation. When compared to a state-of-the art region-based technique, our approach shows superior performance in the alignment of both consecutive and nonconsecutive views as well as higher robustness in featureless environments. The method is used to compute pose constraints between sonar frames that, integrated inside a global alignment framework, enable the rendering of consistent acoustic mosaics with high detail and increased resolution. An extensive experimental section is reported showing results in relevant field applications, such as ship hull inspection and harbor mappin

Rosplan:Planning in the robot operating system

The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a set of software libraries and tools used to build robotic systems. ROS is known for a distributed and modular design. Given a model of the environment, task planning is concerned with the assembly of actions into a structure that is predicted to achieve goals. This can be done in a way that minimises costs, such as time or energy. Task planning is vital in directing the actions of a robotic agent in domains where a causal chain could lock the agent into a dead-end state. Moreover, planning can be used in less constrained domains to provide more intelligent behaviour. This paper describes the ROSPlan framework, an architecture for embedding task planning into ROS systems. We provide a description of the architecture and a case study in autonomous robotics. Our case study involves autonomous underwater vehicles in scenarios that demonstrate the flexibility and robustness of our approach

The Kallisti Limnes, carbon dioxide-accumulating subsea pools

International audienceNatural CO 2 releases from shallow marine hydrothermal vents are assumed to mix into the water column, and not accumulate into stratified seafloor pools. We present newly discovered shallow subsea pools located within the Santorini volcanic caldera of the Southern Aegean Sea, Greece, that accumulate CO 2 emissions from geologic reservoirs. This type of hydrothermal seafloor pool, containing highly concentrated CO 2 , provides direct evidence of shallow benthic CO 2 accumulations originating from sub-seafloor releases. Samples taken from within these acidic pools are devoid of calcifying organisms, and channel structures among the pools indicate gravity driven flow, suggesting that seafloor release of CO 2 at this site may preferentially impact benthic ecosystems. These naturally occurring seafloor pools may provide a diagnostic indicator of incipient volcanic activity and can serve as an analog for studying CO 2 leakage and benthic accumulations from subsea carbon capture and storage sites