The European Project MORPH: Distributed UUV Systems for Multimodal, 3D Underwater Surveys

Kalwa, J.; Tietjen, Daniel; Carreiro‐Silva, Marina; Fontes, Jorge; Brignone, Lorenzo; Gracias, Nuno; Ridao, Pere; Pfingsthorn, Max; Birk, Andreas; Glotzbach, Thomas; Eckstein, Sebastian; Caccia, Massimo; Alves, João; Furfaro, Thomas C.; Ribeiro, Jorge Tavares; Pascoal, A.

doi:10.4031/mtsj.50.4.10

Cited by 20 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The European project MORPH proposes a significant move forward on this issue (Kalwa et al, 2016 ). The concept is that a group of heterogeneous cooperative vehicles or self-propelled sensors carry out a multimodal survey of underwater structures.…”

Section: Interoperability Background and Relevant Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Interoperability Among Unmanned Maritime Vehicles: Review and First In-field Experimentation

et al. 2020

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Complex maritime missions, both above and below the surface, have traditionally been carried out by manned surface ships and submarines equipped with advanced sensor systems. Unmanned Maritime Vehicles (UMVs) are increasingly demonstrating their potential for improving existing naval capabilities due to their rapid deployability, easy scalability, and high reconfigurability, offering a reduction in both operational time and cost. In addition, they mitigate the risk to personnel by leaving the man far-from-the-risk but in-the-loop of decision making. In the long-term, a clear interoperability framework between unmanned systems, human operators, and legacy platforms will be crucial for effective joint operations planning and execution. However, the present multi-vendor multi-protocol solutions in multi-domain UMVs activities are hard to interoperate without common mission control interfaces and communication protocol schemes. Furthermore, the underwater domain presents significant challenges that cannot be satisfied with the solutions developed for terrestrial networks. In this paper, the interoperability topic is discussed blending a review of the technological growth from 2000 onwards with recent authors' in-field experience; finally, important research directions for the future are given. Within the broad framework of interoperability in general, the paper focuses on the aspect of interoperability among UMVs not neglecting the role of the human operator in the loop. The picture emerging from the review demonstrates that interoperability is currently receiving a high level of attention with a great and diverse deal of effort. Besides, the manuscript describes the experience from a sea trial exercise, where interoperability has been demonstrated by integrating heterogeneous autonomous UMVs into the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) network, using different robotic middlewares and acoustic modem technologies to implement a multistatic active sonar system. A perspective for the interoperability in marine robotics missions emerges in the paper, through a discussion of current capabilities, in-field experience and future advanced technologies unique to UMVs. Nonetheless, their application spread is slowed down by the lack of human confidence. In fact, an interoperable system-of-systems of autonomous UMVs will require operators involved only at a supervisory level. As trust develops, endorsed by stable and mature interoperability, human monitoring will be diminished to exploit the tremendous potential of fully autonomous UMVs.

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Section: Interoperability Background and Relevant Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Interoperability Among Unmanned Maritime Vehicles: Review and First In-field Experimentation

et al. 2020

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“…which calculates the probability of the state x n k for one dimensional Gaussian function with mean equal to the distance between the observer and the particle h(x n k ), which is the measurement model described in (8), and variance equal to σ 2…”

Section: Particle Filtermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the moving long baseline [6] or the cooperative range-only tracking methods [7], which use the improvements in autonomous vehicles' performance, and their capabilities to work in more complex scenarios (e.g. [8]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Range-Only Single-Beacon Tracking of Underwater Targets From an Autonomous Vehicle: From Theory to Practice

Masmitja¹,

Gomáriz²,

Río³

et al. 2019

IEEE Access

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Underwater localization is one of the main problems that must be addressed in subsea exploration, where no global positioning system (GPS) is available. In addition to the traditional underwater localization systems, such as long base line (LBL), new methods have been developed to increase the navigation performance and flexibility and to reduce the deployment costs. For example, range-only and single-beacon (ROSB) is based on an autonomous vehicle that localizes and tracks different underwater targets using slant range measurements carried out with acoustic modems. This paper presents different strategies to improve ROSB tracking methods. The ROSB target tracking method can be seen as a hidden Markov model (HMM) problem. Using Bayes' rule, the probability distribution function of the HMM states can be solved by using different filtering methods. Here, we present and compare different methods under different scenarios, both evaluated in simulations and field tests. The main mathematical notation and performance of each algorithm are presented, where best practice has been derived. From a methodological point of view, this paper advanced the understanding of accuracy that can be achieved by using the ROSB target tracking methods with autonomous underwater vehicles. INDEX TERMS Particle filter, range-only target tracking, single-beacon, autonomous underwater vehicles, acoustic modems, slant range.

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“…Besides the traditional Long BaseLine (LBL) and Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL), new strategies are being developed (e.g. moving long baseline) which leverage the higher performance of autonomous vehicles and their capabilities to work in increasingly complex scenarios [1].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Area-only method for underwater object tracking using autonomous vehicles

Masmitja

Gomáriz

Río

et al. 2019

OCEANS 2019 - Marseille

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The use of autonomous underwater vehicles for ocean research has increased as they have a better cost/performance ratio than crewed oceanographic vessels. For example, autonomous vehicles (e.g. a Wave Glider) can be used to localise and track underwater targets. Whereas other researchers have been focused on target tracking using acoustic modems, here we present a novelty method called area-only target tracking. This method works with commercially available acoustic tags, thereby reducing the costs and complexity over other tracking systems. Moreover, this method can be used to track small targets such as jellyfishes due to the tag's size. The methodology behind the area-only technique is shown, and results from the first field tests conducted in Monterey Bay area are also presented.

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The European Project MORPH: Distributed UUV Systems for Multimodal, 3D Underwater Surveys

Cited by 20 publications

References 4 publications

Interoperability Among Unmanned Maritime Vehicles: Review and First In-field Experimentation

Interoperability Among Unmanned Maritime Vehicles: Review and First In-field Experimentation

Range-Only Single-Beacon Tracking of Underwater Targets From an Autonomous Vehicle: From Theory to Practice

Area-only method for underwater object tracking using autonomous vehicles

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