Villanova Autonomous Surface Vehicle: Research Challenges with

RoboBoat and RobotX Competitions Anderson Lebbad and C. Nataraj

Center for Nonlinear Dynamics & Control Department of Mechanical Engineering Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085

April 10, 2014

Competitions: RoboBoat

∗ 7th Annual Competition ∗ Held at the Founders Inn

and Spa, Virginia Beach ∗ 8-13 July 2014 ∗ Boat must fit within a 6ft

x 3ft x 3ft box ∗ Max weight of 140 lbs

Competitions: RobotX

∗ First ever competition ∗ Only 15 Teams accepted to

compete, 3 from each of 5 different countries

∗ Held at the Marina Bay, Republic of Singapore

∗ 20-27 October 2014 ∗ Standard surface vessel

(14ft catamaran) ∗ Max payload of 300 lbs

∗ Demonstrate Navigation and Control (Mandatory) ∗ Underwater Search and Report ∗ Symbol Recognition and Docking ∗ Observation ∗ Obstacle Detection and Avoidance

Tasks

∗ Craft must autonomously maneuver between two sets of buoys

∗ Buoy gates are marked by red left buoy, green right ∗ Linear course ∗ Start gate will have a GPS point provided, end gate

must be detected autonomously

Demonstrate Navigation and Control

∗ Craft must locate an underwater device emitting an acoustic signal

∗ 40m x 100m search area ∗ Attached to an anchored buoy (will be visible for

RoboBoat, may or may not be for RobotX) ∗ GPS coordinated of the search area will be given

Underwater Search and Report

∗ Three docking bays, each with a unique symbol on a placard affixed to it ∗ Triangle, Circle and Cruciform

∗ One of the three symbols will be designated as the symbol for that particular day

∗ Craft must approach the dock and enter the bay of the designated symbol

∗ Placards may be moved from bay to bay between runs

Symbol Recognition and Docking

∗ Craft must detect and report a sequence of colors emitted ∗ Emitter will be on a white buoy no more than 3 m above

water for RobotX ∗ Emitter will be underwater near the deployment dock

for RoboBoat

∗ Each color will be displayed for 500 ms, and the sequence will be repeated after a 2 second delay

Observation

∗ There are 3 gates on either side of a field of obstacles ∗ Craft must enter and exit through designated gates,

specified the night before ∗ Gates are between four buoys, specified by color ∗ Red / White / White / Green

∗ GPS coordinates are given for the four corners of the field

Obstacle Detection and Avoidance

∗ GPS ∗ Compass ∗ Inertial Measurement Unit ∗ Video ∗ LIDAR ∗ Hydrophones

Sensors

∗ Speedgoat Target Machine ∗ Realtime ∗ xPC Target ∗ Simulink

∗ Arduino Microcontrollers ∗ PandaBoard ∗ Lightweight Communications and Marshalling

Computers, Controllers, and Communication

Finite State Machine

∗ Ordered Subsystems ∗ Task Oriented ∗ Separable for Isolated

Testing

Video

∗ Crucial to observation task, symbol recognition and gate identification for obstacle detection / avoidance

∗ Color spaces ∗ RGB ∗ YCbCr

Video: Challenges

∗ Challenges ∗ Over Saturation ∗ Reflections ∗ Background Noise

Video: Sample Image

Video: Color Mask

Red Binary Mask Green Binary Mask

Video: Submatrix

Red Binary Mask Green Binary Mask

Video: Blob Analysis

Video: Extent Filter

Binary Mask Blob has been Filtered Out

Video: Detect Closest

LIDAR

∗ Scanning laser that measures distance

∗ Has a 270 degree field of view

∗ 4 readings per degree ∗ 60 m range

∗ Targets can be detected and selected via LIDAR ∗ Known possible color states of targets ∗ Probability of the target being each of the finite

states can be found ∗ Bayes Filter

Color Analysis

∗ Develops a map based off of sensor information ∗ LIDAR

∗ Localizes the craft in the map ∗ Continuously updates the map as the craft moves

through the environment ∗ Critical for Obstacle Detection and Avoidance

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping

∗ Sensor suite for acoustic task ∗ Pattern Recognition Algorithm for Symbol

Recognition and Docking ∗ Sensor suite for detecting underwater LED array for

(RoboBoat) Observation ∗ Path planning algorithm for Obstacle Detection and

Avoidance

Still in Development

Team Members

∗ Current Students ∗ Anderson Lebbad – MSME ’14 ∗ Nick DiLeo – MSME ’14 ∗ Chida Mahananda – MSEE ‘14 ∗ J. Wes Anderson – MSME ‘15 ∗ Edward Zhu – BSME ‘15 ∗ Dylan DeGaetano – BSME ’15 ∗ Michael Benson – BSME ‘15 ∗ Gin Cheng – BSCPE ‘15 ∗ Gus Jenkins – BSME ‘16 ∗ Priya Shah – BSME ‘16

∗ Previous Students ∗ Joseph Denny – MSME ‘14 ∗ Ryan Holihan – BSME ‘12 ∗ Shahriar Khan – MSEE ’13 ∗ Lester McMackin – BSME ‘13 ∗ Mike Weber – BSCPE ‘13 ∗ Ralph Sullivan – MSME ‘12

∗ Advisors ∗ Dr. C. Nataraj ∗ Dr. Garrett Clayton ∗ Dr. Cedrick Kwuimy ∗ Dr. Helen Loeb ∗ Dr. DongBin Lee

∗ Acknowledgements ∗ Mr. Chris Townsend