Enhancing Autonomy and Decision-Making Capabilities of an Obstacle Avoidance System for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Operating Under Ice

今天的海洋科学需要在极端环境中收集数据，包括极地海洋和冰下。AUV经常用于这些任务，允许进入传统船基采样方法无法到达的区域。可靠的避障系统的可用性对于使AUV能够在这些复杂环境中操作至关重要，其持续发展和有限的可预测性对海洋自主操作提出了额外的挑战。自动驾驶汽车必须能够迅速、充分地应对动态环境带来的挑战，以维护自身的安全和收集的宝贵数据的完整性。尽管人们对避障问题很感兴趣，但这一问题仍然存在一些悬而未决的问题和有待改进的领域。该项目将侧重于开发强大可靠的算法和流程，使水下航行器能够根据机载传感器（如测距或成像声纳）提供的信息有效地检测其周围环境，并利用这些知识来保证其安全，以成功完成自主任务。候选人将被要求为解决问题的各个方面做出贡献并制定创新的解决方案

Today's marine science requires the collection of data in extreme environments, including polar oceans and under ice. AUVs are often employed for these tasks, granting access to areas not reachable with conventional ship-based sampling methods. The availability of a reliable obstacle avoidance system is of paramount importance to enable AUV operations in these complex environments, whose continuous evolution and limited predictability pose additional challenges to marine autonomous operations. An autonomous vehicle must be able to promptly and adequately react to the challenges that a dynamic environment presents to maintain its own safety and the integrity of the precious data it collects. Despite the large interest that obstacles avoidance has received, the problem still presents open questions and areas for improvement. The project will focus on the development of robust and reliable algorithms and processes to enable an underwater vehicle to effectively detect its surrounding environment based on the information provided by onboard sensors (such as ranging or imaging sonars), and to use that knowledge to guarantee its safety to successfully complete autonomous missions. The candidate will be required to contribute to and develop innovative solutions to tackle the diverse aspects of the problem