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

该主要研究仪器（MRI）奖支持在自然海岸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，在那里复杂的因素可以被控制或完全去除。当这些机器人最终在现实世界中使用时，它们必须经过优化，以应对那些不可预测的复杂情况。对于海洋环境中受海浪和洋流影响很大的海洋机器人来说尤其如此。当水下机器人在真实环境中解决性能问题时，该仪器将使设计人员能够准确地跟踪并保持与水下机器人的通信。在欧胡岛海岸外的基洛纳鲁天文台拥有这样一台可供公共学术使用的仪器将加速海洋机器人的研究。能力更强的海洋机器人将反过来改善海洋学和气候模型，使早期预警系统能够提供更多信息，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天然的教室，教授学生关于水下航行器操作和任务规划以及机器人技术的基本知识。这一教育目标对夏威夷大学来说尤其重要，因为夏威夷大学是一所少数族裔服务机构，因此它为STEM领域的多个代表性不足的群体提供了教育和培训机会。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之间提供必要的中间环境。基洛纳鲁天文台是瓦胡岛海岸外的一个永久性电缆天文台，它为以模块化方式安装的许多海洋传感器提供持久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。要求的硬件包括一套声学调制解调器，高精度声学定位系统和可扩展的通用自主水下航行器，作为移动机器人测试和培训平台。与现有硬件一起，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、协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观测站基础设施，减少部署、操作和维护所需的时间和成本。该项目由民用、机械和制造创新部（CMMI）、主要仪器研究计划（MRI）和国家机器人计划（NRI）共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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.