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

这一国际学生研究体验(IRES)项目旨在开发一个用于智能沉船搜索、测绘和可视化的自主水下机器人(AUV)系统。拟议的系统将改进目前的海洋考古方法，并由此开发出可应用于一般类别的机器人探索任务的新技术。首先，将对概率算法展开调查，这些算法识别包含未探索沉船的高可能性区域，离线和在线AUV规划算法可以使用这些区域在搜索沉船时最大限度地获得信息。第二，开发专门用于表面重建的可视化技术，在合并海洋站点科学数据的体积可视化的同时，合并侧扫声纳和立体图像视差图。第三，也是最后一点，这些技术将应用于地中海以前未开发和未开发地区的实际AUV沉船搜索实验，该项目开发的机器人探测技术将在考古学、海洋学、生物学、国土安全和国防等领域得到广泛应用。首席调查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。将为考古界创建遗址数字档案馆。该项目旨在利用研究成果将这些机器人技术介绍给包括美国和马耳他的小学生在内的广大受众，特别是在计算机科学和工程领域通常代表性较低的群体。作为该项目的一部分，机器人研讨会将在马耳他和西西里的小学举办。

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.