I-Corps: Mobile Autonomous Remotely Controlled Observation Node (MARCON) Kit

目前的海洋实地研究活动以科考船模式为主。自主水下航行器（auv）现在已经可用，并且在海洋传感方面已经成熟，但范围有限，有效载荷能力和持续时间也有限制。为了加速远洋船舶的活动，需要改进海洋机器人及其与载人系统（科考船）的耦合。提出的创新是使高速，大功率机器人地面车辆的移动网络（多智能体系统）配备传感器（实时传感）和新型机器人采样器进行后采样处理。机器人水面舰艇由拟议的自动化套件MARCON（移动、自主和远程控制观测节点）启用，MARCON是一种更便宜、更轻便、开源的水面舰艇自动化系统。这项技术更广泛的影响是它能够影响数据收集和各种参数的质量，以了解任何水生生态系统。由于将观测从实验室转移到分散的环境中，自动绘制水道地图的市场正在增长。实施关键参数和新参数的快速自动化制图不仅会影响生态系统的管理，而且可以减少时间和成本，这将导致更有效的环境管理过程。所提出的技术的智力价值在于它能够改变海洋/湖泊/河流观测领域。此外，船舶研究的不足之处，如时间和空间的混叠、有效的大面积覆盖、人类在海上的压力、在水中缺乏持久性以及在大面积范围内自适应响应的能力，都可以通过机器人增强的船舶操作来改善。美国的海洋研究人员将从这项工作中受益。此外，对锋面、水华、极端事件（飓风、放射性释放等）和石油泄漏的适应性反应能力将得到增强。将这些提议的套件推向市场的主要特点包括：分布式的机器人水面车辆车队，以实现新的研究船系统；用于快速传感/水道采样的机器人车辆和用于最大传感器托管的电源；自动化高内容数据生成和可视化的端到端解决方案；先进的自适应传感和采样方法；可访问的开源技术，用于自动化套件和船平台的快速采用和扩散。

Current ocean field research activity is dominated by the Research Vessel paradigm. Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are now available and have been maturing for ocean sensing but are range limited plus have limits in payload capacity and duration. Improvements in ocean robotics and their coupling to manned systems (research vessels) are needed in order to accelerate ocean going ship activities. The proposed innovation is to enable mobile networks (multi-agent system) of high speed, high power robotic surface vehicles outfitted with sensors (real time sensing) and novel robotic samplers for post sample processing. The robotic surface vessels are enabled by the proposed automation kit designated MARCON: (Mobile, Autonomous and Remotely Controlled Observation Node), a cheaper more lightweight and open-source automation system for surface vehicles. The broader impact of this technology is its ability to impact the data collection and quality of the various parameters to understand any aquatic ecosystem. The market for automated mapping of the waterways is growing because of the push to move observations out of laboratories into decentralized settings. Implementation of fast automated mapping of key and new parameters will not only impact the management of ecosystems, but can reduce time in and costs, which will result in a more efficient environmental management process.The intellectual merit of the proposed technology is its ability to transform the field of ocean/lakes/river observations. Further, deficiencies in ship-based research such as aliasing in time and space, efficient large area coverage, stress at sea for humans, lack of persistence on the water, and ability to adaptively respond over a large area, can all be improved with robotic augmented ship operations. Ocean researchers in the US will benefit from this work. In addition, the ability to adaptively respond to fronts, blooms, extreme events (hurricanes, radioactive releases, etc) and oil spills will be enhanced. The key features of making these proposed kits available to the market place include: distributed fleets of robotic surface vehicles to enable a new Research Vessel System; a robotic vehicle for speedy sensing/sampling of waterways and power for maximum sensor hosting; an end-end solution for automated high content data generation and visualization; advanced adaptive sensing and sampling approach; accessible open source technology for rapid adoption and diffusion of the automation kit and boat platform.