Collaborative Technology Hardened for Underwater and Littoral Hazardous Environments

“QinetiQ是一家总部位于汉普郡范堡罗的英国跨国国防科技公司，它与英国一些顶级创新技术提供商合作，以响应创新英国在极端和具有挑战性的环境中机器人和人工智能的研发竞赛。这个项目的名字是“克苏鲁”，以作家h·p·洛夫克拉夫特创造的宇宙实体命名，这是一个被邪教崇拜的巨大实体。克苏鲁的外表被描述为看起来像章鱼、龙和人类形态的漫画。QinetiQ组建了一支全面的团队，以适应与Sellafield现场活性工艺工厂退役相关的复杂和广泛的挑战。该团队包括来自工业界和学术界的专业知识，专业领域包括：QinetiQ（领先），Nuvia UK Ltd，兰开斯特大学，Bristol Maritime Robotics和FORTIS Remote Technology；所有合作伙伴过去或现在都与Sellafield Limited以及核退役管理局（NDA）合作，开展了许多不同的退役相关项目，将互补的技术、系统、理解和技能结合在一起，为极端环境提供解决方案，这些解决方案在国内和国际上都有应用。该项目开展自主系统的研究和开发，利用最先进的机器学习技术，以促进危险（核）空间的自主检查和维护。拟议的解决方案将提供以下创新组件：*一个强大的两栖机器人平台，具有更高水平的自主性，可用于极端环境操作，全天候可用。*基于声纳、触觉和被动光电（EO）传感器的同步定位和测绘（SLAM），可实现水下操作；能够使用新的快速透明深度学习图像分类器识别感兴趣的物体，在任务（检查和移动）的背景下做出决策，包括碰撞检测和避免*视觉模糊环境的触觉感知，以实现详细的本地态势感知，以支持声纳感知。*该平台将与一系列智能工具模块兼容，因此可适应一系列操作场景。”

"QinetiQ, a UK multinational defence technology company based in Farnborough, Hampshire, has teamed up with a number of the UK's top innovative technology providers in response to Innovate UK's Research and Developments competition for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in extreme and challenging Environments. The title of the project is ""Cthulhu"" named after the cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft, a gigantic entity worshipped by cultists. Cthulhu's appearance is described as looking like an octopus, a dragon and a caricature of human form.QinetiQ have assembled a comprehensive team suited for the complex and wide ranging challenges associated with the decommissioning of the active process plants on the Sellafield site. The team includes expertise from both industry and academia, and the fields of expertise include: QinetiQ (lead), Nuvia UK Ltd, University of Lancaster, Bristol Maritime Robotics and FORTIS Remote Technology ; all the partners have in the past or are currently already working with Sellafield Limited and also across the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) estate on an number of diverse decommissioning related projects, bringing together complimentary technologies, systems, understanding and skills to deliver solutions for extreme environments that have application, some cross-cutting, Nationally and Internationally.This project undertakes research and the development of autonomous systems that exploit state of the art machine learning technologies in order to facilitate Autonomous Inspection and Maintenance of Hazardous (nuclear) Spaces.The proposed solution will deliver the following innovative components:* A robust robotic platform that is amphibious, with higher level of autonomy for extreme environment operations with 24/7 availability.* Simultaneous Localisation And Mapping (SLAM) based on sonar, tactile and passive Electro-optical (EO) sensors enabling underwater operations; able to recognise objects of interest using new fast transparent deep learning image classifiers, make decisions in the context of the task (inspect and move) including collision detection and avoidance* Tactile sensing for visually obscure environments to enable detailed local situational awareness to be achieved in support of the sonar sensing.* The platform will be compatible with a range of intelligent tooling modules and hence adaptable for a range of operational scenarios."