New approaches to intelligent navigation of autonomous surface and underwater robotic systems

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Unmanned surface robots (USR) and unmanned underwater robots (UUR) have many important applications such as security surveillance, environmental monitoring and exploration in rivers, lakes and seas, particularly in unstructured and hazardous environments. Real-time sensing, localization, and navigation are fundamentally important issues for autonomous surface robots (ASR) and autonomous underwater robots (AUR). The key challenge is to infuse these robots with “human-like” intelligence that will enable safe autonomous navigation and successful completion of designated tasks. The proposed 5-year research program is to investigate the real-time sensing, localization, path planning, tracking, and control of autonomous surface and underwater robotic systems, using biologically inspired intelligent approaches. In particular, the proposed research will focus on: (1) real-time collision-free navigation and control of water surface robots, including real-time sensing and multi-sensor fusion, integration of acquired information from its onboard sensors and other available sensed information, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), and real-time collision-free path generation and control of the water surface robots; and (2) real-time collision-free navigation and control of autonomous underwater robots in dynamic 3-dimensional (3D) underwater environments, with the presence of unknown ocean currents and other uncertainties. Experimental surface and underwater robotic platforms will be developed as a test bed for this research. Novel biologically inspired intelligent approaches to multi-sensor fusion and autonomous navigation of surface and underwater robotic systems will be developed and implemented on the experimental platforms. Rigorous theoretical investigation and experimental verification of the novel approaches will be conducted, with reference to established leading approaches. The proposed research has been motivated by the fact that biological systems, such as fishes and other animals, can efficiently sense the dynamic environments and take effective actions based on those inputs. The novelty and anticipated significance of the proposed research will be the provision of new knowledge to the respective research communities and the development of new biologically inspired intelligent techniques for real-time sensing and navigation of autonomous surface and underwater robots, which will have many civilian and military applications. In addition, the proposed research will offer some insights into biologically inspired methodologies for other areas of research. Furthermore, this research program will provide good opportunities for the training of highly qualified personnel in the areas of robotics and intelligent systems, and also offer great commercial and social impacts.