This paper describes the PISCES system, an integrated approach for fully autonomous mapping of la... more This paper describes the PISCES system, an integrated approach for fully autonomous mapping of large areas of the ocean in deep waters. A deep water AUV will use an acoustic navigation system to compute is position with bounded error. The range limitation will be overcome by a moving baseline scheme, with the acoustic sources installed in robotic surface vessels with previously combined trajectories. In order to save power, all systems will have synchronized clocks and implement the One Way Travel Time scheme. The mapping system will be a combination of an off-the-shelf MBES with a new long range bathymetry system, with a source on a moving surface vessel and the receivers on board the AUV. The system is being prepared to participate in round one of the XPRIZE challenge.
The SIDENAV and DEEPFLOAT innitiatives aims to develop a demonstrator that validates and apply te... more The SIDENAV and DEEPFLOAT innitiatives aims to develop a demonstrator that validates and apply technology that enables golds between the exploitation of mineral resources in deep-sea waters under Portuguese jurisdiction (for example the Mid-Atlantic Ridge). The Portuguese Sea is characterized by a high depth, and many natural resources are at depths greater. This makes it difficult or even hinders its exploitation through either autonomous or even through tele-operated systems use. Sustainable industrial exploitation of these marine resources require the ability to have deep sea to surface transport systems with high accuracy navigation capabilities at sustainable costs. Underwater operations are carried out by dedicated systems and for the most part with the use of ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) and AUV’s (autonomous underwater vehicles) operated from a ship or a land base station. These systems are used in a wide variety of tasks, such as, installation of equipment and maintena...
This paper presents results of the INESC TEC participation in the maritime environment (both at s... more This paper presents results of the INESC TEC participation in the maritime environment (both at surface and underwater) integrated in the ICARUS team in the euRathlon 2015 robotics search and rescue competition. These relate to the marine robots from INESC TEC, surface (ROAZ USV) and underwater (MARES AUV) autonomous vehicles participation in multiple tasks such as situation assessment, underwater mapping, leak detection or victim localization. This participation was integrated in the ICARUS Team resulting of the EU funded project aimed to develop robotic tools for large scale disasters. The coordinated search and rescue missions were performed with an initial surface survey providing data for AUV mission planning and execution. A situation assessment bathymetry map, sidescan sonar imaging and location of structures, underwater leaks and victims were achieved, with the global ICARUS team (involving sea, air and land coordinated robots) participating in the final grand Challenge and achieving the second place. I.
This paper reports the design of a new remotely operated underwater vehicle WOV), which has been ... more This paper reports the design of a new remotely operated underwater vehicle WOV), which has been developed at the Underwater Systems and Technology Laboratory (USTL)-University of Porto. This design is contextualized on the KOS project (Kits for Underwater operations). The main issues addressed here concern directional drag minimization, symmetry, optimized thruster positioning, stability and layout of ROV components. This design is aimed at optimizing ROV performance for a set of different operational scenarios, This is achieved through modular configurations which are optimized for each different scenario.
This work presents an autonomous system for marine integrated physical-chemical and biological mo... more This work presents an autonomous system for marine integrated physical-chemical and biological monitoring-the MarinEye system. It comprises a set of sensors providing diverse and relevant information for oceanic environment characterization and marine biology studies. It is constituted by a physicalchemical water properties sensor suite, a water filtration and sampling system for DNA collection, a plankton imaging system and biomass assessment acoustic system. The MarinEye system has onboard computational and logging capabilities allowing it either for autonomous operation or for integration in other marine observing systems (such as Observatories or robotic vehicles. It was designed in order to collect integrated multi-trophic monitoring data. The validation in operational environment on 3 marine observatories: RAIA, BerlengasWatch and Cascais on the coast of Portugal is also discussed. I.
In this work the mission control and supervision system developed for the ROAZ Autonomous Surface... more In this work the mission control and supervision system developed for the ROAZ Autonomous Surface Vehicle is presented. Complexity in mission requirements coupled with flexibility lead to the design of a modular hierarchical mission control system based on hybrid systems control. Monitoring and supervision control for a vehicle such as ROAZ mission is not an easy task using tools with low complexity and yet powerful enough. A set of tools were developed to perform both on board mission control and remote planning and supervision. "ROAZ-Mission Control" was developed to be used in support to bathymetric and security missions performed in river and at seas.
This work presents the integration of obstacle detection and analysis capabilities in a coherent ... more This work presents the integration of obstacle detection and analysis capabilities in a coherent and advanced C&C framework allowing mixed-mode control in unmanned surface systems. The collision avoidance work has been successfully integrated in an operational autonomous surface vehicle and demonstrated in real operational conditions. We present the collision avoidance system, the ROAZ autonomous surface vehicle and the results obtained at sea tests.
Underwater acoustic networks can be quite effective to establish communication links between auto... more Underwater acoustic networks can be quite effective to establish communication links between autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and other vehicles or control units, enabling complex vehicle applications and control scenarios. A communications and control framework to support the use of underwater acoustic networks and sample application scenarios are described for single and multi-AUV operation.
The design and development of the Swordfish Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) system is discussed.... more The design and development of the Swordfish Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) system is discussed. Swordfish is an ocean capable 4.5m long catamaran designed for network centric operations (with ocean and air going vehicles and human operators). In the basic configuration, Swordfish is both a survey vehicle and a communications node with gateways for broadband, Wi-Fi and GSM transports and underwater acoustic modems. In another configuration, Swordfish mounts a docking station for the autonomous underwater vehicle Isurus from Porto University. Swordfish has an advanced control architecture for multi-vehicle operations with mixed initiative interactions (human operators are allowed to interact with the control loops).
This work presents a hybrid coordinated manoeuvre for docking an autonomous surface vehicle with ... more This work presents a hybrid coordinated manoeuvre for docking an autonomous surface vehicle with an autonomous underwater vehicle. The control manoeuvre uses visual information to estimate the AUV relative position and attitude in relation to the ASV and steers the ASV in order to dock with the AUV. The AUV is assumed to be at surface with only a small fraction of its volume visible. The system implemented in the Autonomous Surface vehicle ROAZ, developed by LSA-ISEP to perform missions in river environment, test autonomous AUV docking capabilities and multiple AUV/ASV coordinated missions is presented.
This paper describes the PISCES system, an integrated approach for fully autonomous mapping of la... more This paper describes the PISCES system, an integrated approach for fully autonomous mapping of large areas of the ocean in deep waters. A deep water AUV will use an acoustic navigation system to compute is position with bounded error. The range limitation will be overcome by a moving baseline scheme, with the acoustic sources installed in robotic surface vessels with previously combined trajectories. In order to save power, all systems will have synchronized clocks and implement the One Way Travel Time scheme. The mapping system will be a combination of an off-the-shelf MBES with a new long range bathymetry system, with a source on a moving surface vessel and the receivers on board the AUV. The system is being prepared to participate in round one of the XPRIZE challenge.
The SIDENAV and DEEPFLOAT innitiatives aims to develop a demonstrator that validates and apply te... more The SIDENAV and DEEPFLOAT innitiatives aims to develop a demonstrator that validates and apply technology that enables golds between the exploitation of mineral resources in deep-sea waters under Portuguese jurisdiction (for example the Mid-Atlantic Ridge). The Portuguese Sea is characterized by a high depth, and many natural resources are at depths greater. This makes it difficult or even hinders its exploitation through either autonomous or even through tele-operated systems use. Sustainable industrial exploitation of these marine resources require the ability to have deep sea to surface transport systems with high accuracy navigation capabilities at sustainable costs. Underwater operations are carried out by dedicated systems and for the most part with the use of ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) and AUV’s (autonomous underwater vehicles) operated from a ship or a land base station. These systems are used in a wide variety of tasks, such as, installation of equipment and maintena...
This paper presents results of the INESC TEC participation in the maritime environment (both at s... more This paper presents results of the INESC TEC participation in the maritime environment (both at surface and underwater) integrated in the ICARUS team in the euRathlon 2015 robotics search and rescue competition. These relate to the marine robots from INESC TEC, surface (ROAZ USV) and underwater (MARES AUV) autonomous vehicles participation in multiple tasks such as situation assessment, underwater mapping, leak detection or victim localization. This participation was integrated in the ICARUS Team resulting of the EU funded project aimed to develop robotic tools for large scale disasters. The coordinated search and rescue missions were performed with an initial surface survey providing data for AUV mission planning and execution. A situation assessment bathymetry map, sidescan sonar imaging and location of structures, underwater leaks and victims were achieved, with the global ICARUS team (involving sea, air and land coordinated robots) participating in the final grand Challenge and achieving the second place. I.
This paper reports the design of a new remotely operated underwater vehicle WOV), which has been ... more This paper reports the design of a new remotely operated underwater vehicle WOV), which has been developed at the Underwater Systems and Technology Laboratory (USTL)-University of Porto. This design is contextualized on the KOS project (Kits for Underwater operations). The main issues addressed here concern directional drag minimization, symmetry, optimized thruster positioning, stability and layout of ROV components. This design is aimed at optimizing ROV performance for a set of different operational scenarios, This is achieved through modular configurations which are optimized for each different scenario.
This work presents an autonomous system for marine integrated physical-chemical and biological mo... more This work presents an autonomous system for marine integrated physical-chemical and biological monitoring-the MarinEye system. It comprises a set of sensors providing diverse and relevant information for oceanic environment characterization and marine biology studies. It is constituted by a physicalchemical water properties sensor suite, a water filtration and sampling system for DNA collection, a plankton imaging system and biomass assessment acoustic system. The MarinEye system has onboard computational and logging capabilities allowing it either for autonomous operation or for integration in other marine observing systems (such as Observatories or robotic vehicles. It was designed in order to collect integrated multi-trophic monitoring data. The validation in operational environment on 3 marine observatories: RAIA, BerlengasWatch and Cascais on the coast of Portugal is also discussed. I.
In this work the mission control and supervision system developed for the ROAZ Autonomous Surface... more In this work the mission control and supervision system developed for the ROAZ Autonomous Surface Vehicle is presented. Complexity in mission requirements coupled with flexibility lead to the design of a modular hierarchical mission control system based on hybrid systems control. Monitoring and supervision control for a vehicle such as ROAZ mission is not an easy task using tools with low complexity and yet powerful enough. A set of tools were developed to perform both on board mission control and remote planning and supervision. "ROAZ-Mission Control" was developed to be used in support to bathymetric and security missions performed in river and at seas.
This work presents the integration of obstacle detection and analysis capabilities in a coherent ... more This work presents the integration of obstacle detection and analysis capabilities in a coherent and advanced C&C framework allowing mixed-mode control in unmanned surface systems. The collision avoidance work has been successfully integrated in an operational autonomous surface vehicle and demonstrated in real operational conditions. We present the collision avoidance system, the ROAZ autonomous surface vehicle and the results obtained at sea tests.
Underwater acoustic networks can be quite effective to establish communication links between auto... more Underwater acoustic networks can be quite effective to establish communication links between autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and other vehicles or control units, enabling complex vehicle applications and control scenarios. A communications and control framework to support the use of underwater acoustic networks and sample application scenarios are described for single and multi-AUV operation.
The design and development of the Swordfish Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) system is discussed.... more The design and development of the Swordfish Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) system is discussed. Swordfish is an ocean capable 4.5m long catamaran designed for network centric operations (with ocean and air going vehicles and human operators). In the basic configuration, Swordfish is both a survey vehicle and a communications node with gateways for broadband, Wi-Fi and GSM transports and underwater acoustic modems. In another configuration, Swordfish mounts a docking station for the autonomous underwater vehicle Isurus from Porto University. Swordfish has an advanced control architecture for multi-vehicle operations with mixed initiative interactions (human operators are allowed to interact with the control loops).
This work presents a hybrid coordinated manoeuvre for docking an autonomous surface vehicle with ... more This work presents a hybrid coordinated manoeuvre for docking an autonomous surface vehicle with an autonomous underwater vehicle. The control manoeuvre uses visual information to estimate the AUV relative position and attitude in relation to the ASV and steers the ASV in order to dock with the AUV. The AUV is assumed to be at surface with only a small fraction of its volume visible. The system implemented in the Autonomous Surface vehicle ROAZ, developed by LSA-ISEP to perform missions in river environment, test autonomous AUV docking capabilities and multiple AUV/ASV coordinated missions is presented.
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Papers by Hugo Ferreira