An unmanned seafloor mapping system: The concept of an AUV integrated with the newly designed USV SEA-KIT

Zwolak, Karolina; Simpson, Benjamin; Anderson, Bob; Bazhenova, E.; Falconer, R. K. H.; Kearns, Timothy J.; Minami, Hiroki; Roperez, Jaya; Rosedee, A.; Tinmouth, Neil; Wigley, Rochelle; Zarayskaya, Yulia

doi:10.1109/oceanse.2017.8084899

Cited by 25 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…SEA-KIT has been designed by the UK Company Hushraft Ltd., and built as the part of the GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Alumni Team solution for the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE Challenge [6][7][8]. The requirements of the competition determined the size and functionalities of the vessel.…”

Section: Sea-kit-built Trials Unmanned Operationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Table 5. Specifications of unmanned surface vessel (USV) SEA-KIT 'Maxlimer' [6][7][8]. The unusual shape of the hull ensures good stability, necessary for the survey work and the optimal use of space inside the vessel in the situation where the midship part is reserved for the transportation of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, launched and recovered through the stern part.…”

Section: Sea-kit-built Trials Unmanned Operationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Ocean-Going Autonomous Ship—Challenges and Threats

Felski

Zwolak

2020

JMSE

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126

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Unmanned vehicles have become a part of everyday life, not only in the air, but also at sea. In the case of sea, until now this usually meant small platforms operating near shores, usually for surveying or research purposes. However, experiments with larger cargo vessels, designed to operate on the high seas are already being carried out. In this context, there are questions about the threats that this solution may pose for other sea users, as well as the safety of the unmanned vehicle itself and the cargo or equipment on board. The problems can be considered in the context of system reliability as well as the resilience to interference or other intentional actions directed against these objects—for example, of a criminal nature. The paper describes the dangers that arise from the specificity of systems that can be used to solve navigational problems, as well as the analysis of the first experiences of the authors arising from the transit of an unmanned surface vessel (USV) from the United Kingdom to Belgium and back, crossing the busiest world shipping route—the English Channel.

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Section: Sea-kit-built Trials Unmanned Operationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sea-kit-built Trials Unmanned Operationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ocean-Going Autonomous Ship—Challenges and Threats

Felski

Zwolak

2020

JMSE

Self Cite

126

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“…Basic data about both vehicles used during the survey are provided in Tables 1 and 2. The detailed description of the design and functionalities of the mapping system can be found in [12][13][14]. Figure 3 presents the general concept of the survey, according to the Competition requirements.…”

Section: Data Acquisition Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Integrated with the Unmanned Surface Vessel Mapping the Southern Ionian Sea. The Winning Technology Solution of the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE

et al. 2020

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The methods of data collection, processing, and assessment of the quality of the results of a survey conducted at the Southern Ionian Sea off the Messinian Peninsula, Greece are presented. Data were collected by the GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Alumni Team, competing in the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, during the Final Round of the competition. Data acquisition was conducted by the means of unmanned vehicles only. The mapping system was composed of a single deep water AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle), equipped with a high-resolution synthetic aperture sonar HISAS 1032 and multibeam echosounder EM 2040, partnered with a USV (Unmanned Surface Vessel). The USV provided positioning data as well as mapping the seafloor from the surface, using a hull-mounted multibeam echosounder EM 304. Bathymetry and imagery data were collected for 24 h and then processed for 48 h, with the extensive use of cloud technology and automatic data processing. Finally, all datasets were combined to generate a 5-m resolution bathymetric surface, as an example of the deep-water mapping capabilities of the unmanned vehicles' cooperation and their sensors' integration.The ocean floor is the most remote and difficult part of our planet, yet to be explored. Due to the extreme conditions facing exploration, the majority of the world's ocean floor is still unmapped [1,2]. Modern mapping techniques, based on the acoustic technology, allow us the possibility to collect bathymetric and water column data, but the survey process is slow and expensive. The majority of present-day surveying efforts go into the busier, shallow waters for the purpose of safety of navigation. While this represents an understandable and necessary approach, it results in the majority of the deep ocean still being unmapped. The overall shape of the global ocean floor is an estimation based on the satellite altimetry technique [3] and interpolation between sparse acoustic measurements.The American foundation XPRIZE announced in 2015 that the next award will go to those who come up with the solution for faster, detailed mapping of the ocean floor, without exposing humans to the harsh sea environment. That was the beginning of the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE. To compete in the final round of the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, each team had to present the solution for collecting bathymetric data and imagery data and successfully complete Round 1 in 2017. During the second round a year later, the bathymetric data collection had to achieve depths of up to 4000 m, with a vertical resolution of 0.5 m and a horizontal resolution of 5 m. The imagery needed to include images presenting recognizable geological, biological, or archaeological features on the seabed. The solution had to be autonomous or remote controlled, but there must have been no human inside the survey area, and no physical link between the devices and the mission control location. The mapping system, with all its elements, had to fit into one standard 40-ft shipping container. The minimum coverage to be achieved during t...

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“…Pairing an autonomous underwater vehicle with an autonomous surface vessel (ASV) acting as a communication and navigation aid (CNA) has been regarded as a natural step forward in automating surveys and freeing the AUV from the survey vessel. Recently, a concept where an underwater vehicle is launched and recovered from an autonomous surface vehicle has been demonstrated, further removing the need for a manned ship during launch, recovery, and transit [5]. Long-term deployments of a CNA across multiple AUV dives have been demonstrated by equipping a Wave Glider ASV, utilizing wave energy for propulsion, with acoustic modems and satellite communications [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trajectory Planning for Navigation Aiding of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

2020

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Autonomous underwater vehicles can perform seabed surveys with a higher resolution and quality than from equivalent ship-mounted sensors. Although high-grade inertial navigation systems aided by Doppler velocity logs can operate without external position references for extended durations, this may still be required to meet survey specifications. This paper presents a trajectory planning algorithm for an autonomous surface vessel with the purpose of aiding the navigation of one or multiple underwater vehicles using ultra-short baseline acoustic positioning. The trajectory planning problem is formulated as a nonlinear program for the single-vehicle tracking scenario and mixed-integer nonlinear program for tracking of multiple vehicles. In the absence of external acoustic positioning, the horizontal uncertainties of all targets increase as functions of time and heading. The optimal placement of the surface vessel is calculated by considering the propagated acoustic measurement uncertainty, which varies according to the range and direction towards the target. The trajectories are generated by minimizing the uncertainty of all targets, while also considering penalties on the control inputs and obeying vessel kinematics. The approach is demonstrated through a series of simulations. INDEX TERMS Acoustic measurements, autonomous vehicles, marine navigation, optimal control, path planning, position measurement, trajectory optimization, unmanned underwater vehicles.

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An unmanned seafloor mapping system: The concept of an AUV integrated with the newly designed USV SEA-KIT

Cited by 25 publications

References 0 publications

The Ocean-Going Autonomous Ship—Challenges and Threats

The Ocean-Going Autonomous Ship—Challenges and Threats

The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Integrated with the Unmanned Surface Vessel Mapping the Southern Ionian Sea. The Winning Technology Solution of the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE

Trajectory Planning for Navigation Aiding of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

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