Completeness and Accuracy of a Wide-Area Maritime Situational Picture based on Automatic Ship Reporting Systems

Automatic ship reporting systems (AIS – Automatic identification System, LRIT – Long Range Identification and Tracking, VMS – Vessel Monitoring System) today allow global tracking of ships. One way to display the results is in a map of current ship positions over an area of interest, the Maritime Situational Picture (MSP). The MSP is dynamic and must be constructed from fusing the reporting systems’ messages, constructing ship tracks and predicting ship positions to correct for latency especially in the case of AIS received by satellite which forms the bulk of the data. This paper discusses the completeness of the resulting MSP and the accuracy of its positions, quantifying the additional value of the individual data sources.JRC.G.3-Maritime affair

coupling of a redundant manipulator with a virtual reality environment to enhance human robot cooperation

Abstract The current trend in manufacturing is to obtain a flexible work cell in which human and robot can safely interact and collaborate. Virtual Reality (VR) represents an effective tool capable of simulating such complex systems with a high level of immersion. In order to take advantage of VR technologies to study Human-Robot Cooperation (HRC), a digital model of a redundant manipulator (KUKA LBR iiwa) has been developed starting with kinematic modeling and then coupled with the real robot. This approach allows simulating HRC in several scenarios, to reproduce the safe behavior on the real robot, as well as to train operators

implementation of tactile sensors on a 3 fingers robotiq adaptive gripper and visualization in vr using arduino controller

Abstract Tactile sensors are essential components for the implementation of complex manipulation tasks using robot grippers, allowing to directly control the grasping force according to the object properties. Virtual Reality represents an effective tool capable of visualizing complex systems in full details and with a high level of interactivity. After the implementation of cost-effective tactile arrays on a 3-finger Robotiq ® gripper using an ARDUINO controller, it is presented an innovative VR interface capable of visualizing the pressure values at the fingertips in a 3D environment, providing an effective tool aimed at supporting the programming and the visualization of the gripper VR

PMAR: Piracy, Maritime Awareness & Risks. Trial Implementation under MASE

During one year, from September 2014 to September 2015, the PMAR-MASE project has produced the real-time traffic picture of the reporting ships (that use the AIS or LRIT automatic position reporting system) over the entire Western Indian Ocean, and delivered it via a web viewer to two authorities in Africa with a regional maritime security responsibility: the Anti-Piracy Unit of the Indian Ocean Commission in the Seychelles, and the Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of the Kenya Maritime Authority in Mombasa. In addition, monthly ship density maps have been produced, and a number of satellite images have been analysed to assess the presence of non-reporting ships. The purpose of the project was familiarisation of maritime authorities in the Eastern-Southern Africa / Indian Ocean region with region-wide maritime monitoring, providing hands-on experience, and developing an understanding of what kind of information level is attainable and how to use the information. This report discusses the activities done under the project, the data that were used, the system design, the processing that was done, the visits to the region, the user feedback, and the performance of the system. The PMAR approach is based on the fusion of AIS and LRIT data from several sources, with satellite AIS being the most valuable data type, supplemented by a limited number of satellite SAR images. It is concluded that this approach provides a very powerful tool for region-wide maritime awareness, to which the authorities can avail themselves via commercial services.JRC.G.3-Maritime affair

Collaboration with High-Payload Industrial Robots: Simulation for Safety

When operators and industrial robots are sharing the same task, there are multiple factors, which effect if a system is safe for the human operator or not. In general this is solved by introducing Collaborative Robot for cooperation, but what happens when we would extend our already existing production facilities with newer comfort features? In this paper we propose to include industrial robots and humans executing the same task, while their safety is supervised by a simulation environment, where all necessary precautions are taken. The task is a simple nut-screw operation, where the industrial robot is executing the hard lifting part for the screw and the human holds the nut to be screwed on the screw. Results are demonstrated through simulation and in reality also.</p