NRI: Collaborative Research: Adaptive multi-Robot Configurable Teams Investigating Changing Ecosystem

该项目涉及综合机器人系统开发中的关键目标，例如提高机器人采集样本的能力，基于车辆能力的灵活机器人任务，以及改善机器人团队的操作和监测方面的人类表现。由项目组开发的互补的飞行、漂浮和水下机器人团队最近获得了在精确位置进行观测并在水面上下进行测量的能力。在阿拉斯加偏远地区获得水质、温度和水下测绘测量以及野生动物和生态系统观测方面的额外发展援助。该项目提出了推进多机器人技术、科学部署实践和理解的愿景，以扩大人类在难以进入的环境中的感知范围，同时还提供了对影响低地北极生态系统方方面面的新干扰制度的基本科学理解。随着气候变化重新分布它们的栖息地，新的和意想不到的野生动物正在向北迁移到北极冻土带。例如，卫星研究表明，在过去的20年里，北美海狸已经在阿拉斯加西北部的大片地区定居，由于新的大坝和水文变化，永久冻土正在融化。由于地形偏远，无法收集水下测量数据，以及定义海狸工程环境的水生和陆地混合湿地环境的复杂性，很难测量这种景观变化对水生生境和区域生态系统的影响。该项目以一体化的机器人议程推进NSF国家机器人倡议(NRI)，重点是机器人系统和团队的整合，灵感来自基于无人居住的空中、地面和水下系统(UAS、USS和UUS；统称为UxS)的苔原生态系统监测，采取需要机器人学、计算机科学、系统工程和冻土带生态系统科学交叉努力的多学科方法。这项工作有助于将变革性的环境监测技术作为UxS采样系统的一部分，以扩大科学家在具有挑战性的环境中的覆盖面。这项研究推进了车辆创新，以改进新环境下样本采集的机制和算法，基于环境和车辆观察的采样的在线重新规划/重新任务，理解用户熟练程度、心理模型和相互适应以改进系统性能，以及在两栖冻土带环境中收集数据的新方法，以研究永久冻土融化和全球变化形成。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project addresses key goals in the development of integrative robotic systems, such as improvements in robot capability for sample collection, flexible robot tasking based on vehicle abilities, and improved human performance in operation and monitoring of robot teams. Teams of complementary flying, floating, and underwater robots developed by the project team have recently gained the ability to perform observations at precise locations and take measurements both above and below the surface of the water. Additional development aid in obtaining water quality, temperature, and underwater mapping measurements, as well as wildlife and ecosystem observations, at remote sites in Alaska. This project presents a vision for advancing multi-robot technologies, scientific deployment practices, and understanding in order to extend the reach of human sensing in difficult-to-access environments while also providing fundamental scientific understanding of a new disturbance regime affecting all aspects of low-land Arctic ecosystems. New and unexpected wildlife are moving north into Arctic tundra as climate change redistributes their habitat. For example, satellite research has shown the North American beaver has colonized vast areas of northwestern Alaska over the last 20 years and because of the new dams and hydrological changes, permafrost is thawing. Access to measure what effect this landscape change has on aquatic habitats and regional ecosystems is difficult due to the remoteness of the terrain, an inability to collect underwater measurements, and the complexity of the mixed aquatic and terrestrial wetland environment that defines the beaver engineered environment. This project advances the NSF National Robotics Initiative (NRI) with an integrative robotic agenda, focusing on the integration of robotics systems and teams, inspired in the context of Uninhabited Aerial, Surface, and Underwater Systems (UAS, USS, and UUS; collectively defined as UxS) based tundra ecosystem monitoring, taking a multidisciplinary approach that requires efforts at the intersection of robotics, computer science, systems engineering, and tundra ecosystem science. This work contributes to transformative environmental monitoring technologies as part of a UxS sampling system to expand the reach of scientists in challenging environments. This research advances vehicle innovations to improve mechanisms and algorithms for sample collection in new contexts, online replanning/retasking of sampling based on environmental and vehicle observations, understanding of user proficiency, mental models, and mutual adaptation for improved system performance, and new methods for data collection in amphibious tundra environments to study permafrost thaw and global change formation.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.