MRI: Development of an Innovative Underwater Robot Testing Facility for the Kilo Nalu Natural Coastal Marine Observatory

该重大研究仪器（MRI）奖支持在自然沿海环境中开发最先进的水下机器人测试仪器。机器人系统通常是在实验室环境中开发的，在实验室环境中，复杂的因素可以被控制或完全消除。当这些机器人最终在现实世界中使用时，它们必须进行优化，以与那些不可预测的复杂情况进行交互。对于海洋机器人来说尤其如此，因为它们受到海洋环境中波浪和水流的严重影响。该仪器将使设计人员能够准确地跟踪和保持与水下机器人的通信，同时解决真实环境中的性能问题。拥有这样一台仪器可供奥陶纪海岸附近的基洛纳鲁天文台的公共学术使用，将加速海洋机器人的研究。更有能力的海洋机器人将反过来导致海洋学和气候建模的改进，使信息量更大的早期预警系统成为可能，并增强沿海和岛屿社区的复原力。这个机器人测试池也将作为一个自然的教室，教学生关于水下航行器操作和使命规划以及一般的机器人基础知识。这一教育目标对夏威夷大学特别重要，夏威夷大学是一所少数民族服务机构，因此为STEM领域的多个代表性不足的群体提供教育和培训机会。通过该奖项创建的设施旨在为实验室可行性研究和海洋机器人的全面实施提供必要的中介环境。基洛纳鲁天文台是一个永久性的有线观测站，位于奥陶纪海岸，为以模块化方式安装的许多海洋传感器提供持续的电力和高速数据传输。机器人测试仪器将建立在这个基础设施上。所要求的硬件包括一组声学调制解调器、一个高精度声学定位系统和一个可扩展的通用自主水下航行器，以作为移动的机器人测试和训练平台。与现有的硬件一起，自然实验室将具有水下通信，跟踪，对接和充电能力，以便对新型车辆子系统，导航和控制算法，合作控制方法进行复杂的现场测试和培训，并将作为常驻水下机器人的基地。该设施将利用夏威夷大学现有的水下天文台基础设施，以减少部署，操作和维护所需的时间和成本。该项目由土木，机械和制造创新（CMMI），主要仪器研究计划（MRI），该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award supports the development of a state-of-the-art underwater robotics testing instrument in a natural coastal environment. Robotic systems are often developed in laboratory settings, where complicating factors can be controlled or removed entirely. When those robots are eventually utilized in a real-world setting, they must be optimized to interact with those unpredictable complications. This is especially true for marine robots which are heavily influenced by waves and currents in the ocean environment. This instrument will allow designers to accurately track and maintain communication with underwater robots while they troubleshoot performance issues in authentic surroundings. Having such an instrument available for public academic use at the Kilo Nalu Observatory off the coast of O’ahu will accelerate marine robot research. More capable marine robots will in turn lead to improvements in oceanographic and climate modeling, enable more informative early warning systems, and enhance the resilience of coastal and island communities. This robotic test basin will also serve as a natural classroom, teaching students both about underwater vehicle operations and mission planning and about the fundamentals of robotics in general. This educational objective is especially important to the University of Hawai’i, a minority serving institution, thus providing education and training opportunities to multiple underrepresented groups in STEM fields. The facility being created through this award is intended to provide a necessary intermediary environment between laboratory feasibility studies and full-scale oceanic implementation of marine robots. The Kilo Nalu Observatory is a permanent cabled observatory off the coast of Oahu that provides persistent power and high-speed data transfer to a number of oceanographic sensors installed in a modular fashion. The robot testing instrument will be built on this infrastructure. The requested hardware includes a set of acoustic modems, a high-accuracy acoustic localization system, and an expandable general-purpose autonomous underwater vehicle, to serve as a mobile robot testing and training platform. Together with the existing hardware, the natural laboratory will have underwater communication, tracking, docking, and charging capabilities in order to perform sophisticated field testing and training of novel vehicle subsystems, navigation and control algorithms, cooperative control methodologies, and will serve as a home base for resident underwater robots. The facility will leverage the existing University of Hawai’i underwater observatory infrastructure to reduce the time and costs required for deployment, operation, and maintenance.This project is jointly funded by the division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI), the Major Instrumentation Research Program (MRI), and the National Robotics Initiative (NRI).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.