swarms - smart and networking underwater robots in cooperation meshes
TRANSCRIPT
SWARMsSmart and Networking UnderWAter Robots in Cooperation Meshes
IONUȚ DRĂGHICI, Software DeveloperTeamnet Group
Background
• In the last years, the underwater environment is in full ascent regarding
the development of remote controlled robots and autonomous robots for
military and civil applications.
• Underwater environment is at the beginning of journey regarding the
development of robots, but the lack of legal framework does not help the
progress.
Solution
• At the moment, there are robots of
different dimensions and various
characteristics in use. In order to
collaborate in specific tasks of military and
civil applications a unified control
station is required.
• A solution that solves this issue is under
development as part of an EU project
named SWARMs (Smart and Networking
UnderWAter Robots in Cooperation
Meshes).
SWARMs Project
SWARMs
• Title: Smart and Networking UnderWAter Robots in Cooperation Meshes
• Acronym: SWAMRs
• Project identifier: ECSEL-2014-662107
• Start date of project: 01/07/2015
• End date of project: 30/06/2018
• Duration of project in months: 36
• Founder: H2020-EU.2.1.1.7. – ECSEL
• Consortium: 30 partners from 10 countries
SWARMs - Goal
• Expand the use of underwater and surfacevehicles (AUV – Autonomous UnderwaterVehicle, ROV – Remotely Operatedunderwater Vehicle, USV – UnmannedSurface Vehicle) to facilitate the conception,planning, execution of operations andmissions in a collaborative maritimeenvironment.
• This will reduce the operational costs,increase the safety of tasks and of involvedindividuals, and expand the offshore sector.
Approach
• Design and develop an integrated platformfor a new generation of autonomousmaritime and underwater operations.
• A set of software/hardware components,adopted and incorporated into the currentgeneration of maritime and underwatervehicles in order to improve:
• Autonomy
• Robustness
• Cost-effectiveness
• Reliability
Demonstrators & Scenarios
• SWARMs’ achievements will be demonstrated in three field testing sites:
• Canary Islands, Spain
• Constanta, Romania
• Hovringen, Norway
• Different scenarios and use cases:
• Corrosion prevention in offshore installations
• Monitoring of chemical pollution
• Detection, inspection and tracking of plumes
• Berm building
• Seabed Mapping
MMT (Mission Management Tool)
• MMT can be located inside the Commandand Control Station (CCS) on shore or ona vessel.
• MMT is responsible for generation ofmissions, assign tasks to robots, andsupervision of the mission.
• A human operator can interact with thesystem from MMT.
Middleware
• The middleware is responsible for receiving,process, store and disseminate messages/databetween MMT and the AUVs/ROVs/USVs.
• The distribution of middleware spans across theCCS, communication nodes and also somemodules onboard of the vehicles. The satellite andbuoy provides communication between robotvehicles and CCS.
Communication
• For the overwater communication the usage of a standard RF network provides a high bandwidth for data.
• The underwater acoustic modems provides a low bandwidth of 100 kpbs over 100 m at 50 m depth for AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle), and the length of cables in ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicle) limits the operation area.
Underwater networks
• All of the communication between the underwater robots will be directedthrough the middleware, which offers interfacing elements to thecommunication system.
• Messages related only to safety issues (e.g. similar to Traffic Alert andCollision Avoidance System - TCAS) can be transmitted directly betweenrobots with a notification to the MMT through the middleware.
• Regarding the underwater network, the medium and high frequency modemsdivide the communications between MMT and robots into two categories: MFfor telemetry, data and commands and HF for video and images.
Conclusion
• Collaborative work of underwater robots will determine the maineconomic activity in offshore missions in the near future.
• The difficulty of underwater activity is proportional with the depth of themission, the purpose of swarm of robots is to replace the human activityin this dangerous environment.
• A legal framework for maritime robots is required.
Thank you!www.teamnet.rowww.swarms.eu