IRES: Intelligent Search and Mapping of Submerged Cultural Heritage Ancient Shipwrecks using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

这项国际学生研究经验（IRES）项目旨在开发一种自主水下航行器（AUV）系统，用于智能沉船搜索、测绘和可视化。拟议的系统将改进目前的海洋考古方法，并在此过程中开发可应用于一般类型的机器人勘探任务的新技术。首先，将对概率算法进行调查，该算法可识别包含未探索沉船的高可能性区域，离线和在线AUV规划算法可用于在搜索沉船时最大化信息增益。第二，开发用于表面重建的可视化技术，该技术融合了侧扫声纳和立体图像视差图，同时结合了海洋站点科学数据的体可视化。第三，也是最后，这些技术将应用于实际的水下航行器沉船搜索实验，在地中海以前未开发和未开发的地区。本课题开发的机器人探测技术在考古、海洋学、生物学、国土安全、国防等领域具有广泛的应用前景。主要研究人员和学生参与者将通过出版物和专业会议，以及向当地社区成员和公共互联网门户网站传播研究成果。将为考古界创建一个遗址的数字档案。该项目旨在利用研究成果将这些机器人技术介绍给广泛的受众，包括美国和马耳他的小学生，特别是在计算机科学和工程领域代表性不足的群体。作为该项目的一部分，机器人研讨会将在马耳他和西西里岛的小学开展。

This International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) project aims to develop an Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) system for intelligent shipwreck search, mapping and visualization. The proposed system will improve on current approaches to marine archeology, and in doing so develop novel techniques that can be applied to a general class of robot exploration tasks. First, an investigation will be launched into probabilistic algorithms that identify regions of high likelihood of containing unexplored shipwrecks that offline and online AUV planning algorithms can use to maximize information gain when searching for wrecks. Second, the development of visualization techniques dedicated to surface reconstruction that merge side scanning sonar and stereo image disparity maps while incorporating volume visualizations of marine site science data. Third, and finally, these techniques will be applied in actual AUV shipwreck search experiments in previously unexplored and under-explored areas of the Mediterranean.The robotic exploration technology developed in this project will be applicable to a wide range of applications in archaeology, oceanography, biology, homeland security, and defense. The Principal Investigators and student participants will disseminate research findings via publications and professional conferences, and to local community members and public internet portal. A digital archive of sites will be created for the archeological community. This project aims to use the research findings to introduce these robotic technologies to a broad audience including elementary school children in both the US and Malta, and especially to groups typically underrepresented in computer science and engineering. As part of the project, robotics workshops will be run at elementary schools located in Malta and Sicily.