RAPID: Monitoring of Gulf Oil Spill with Gliding Robotic Fish

墨西哥湾漏油事件预计将对未来多年的环境、生态系统和当地经济造成毁灭性的影响。监测和跟踪油羽对于清理工作、海滩关闭警告、保护敏感区域以及了解漏油事件对环境和生态的影响至关重要。迫切需要新的、高效的、经济的技术来实现对石油泄漏的无处不在的监测。拟议的为期一年的快速项目回应了这一需要，目的是开发和部署一群小型、成本效益高、能效高的滑翔机器鱼，用于对墨西哥湾沿海地区进行动态和持续监测，以探测和跟踪海面上和海下的油羽。这一宏伟目标将通过在三个领域的密集研究和开发工作来实现：-滑行机器鱼的设计和开发。通过滑翔机构设计、尾翼滑翔机集成和包装方案开发，我们将在最大潜水深度、旅行速度、连续操作持续时间和可靠性方面达到预期的规格。-通过船上仪器、机器人动力学建模和控制以及通信和协调协议的设计实现自主性。这种自主性将使机器人能够在颠簸的水域中可靠地工作，避开障碍物，并保持网络连接。-在海湾地区的演示和部署。将部署配备紧凑型原油传感器的滑翔机器鱼来探测和跟踪墨西哥湾的油羽，同时进行技术转让，以实现开发的传感平台的广泛可用。随着持续不断的海湾危机的迫切需要，该项目预计将迅速推进基于滑翔机器鱼的移动传感技术，从目前的初步实验室原型发展为在真实、恶劣的环境中(如墨西哥湾)取得成功的坚固和具有成本效益的产品。特别是，该项目将为小型滑翔机带来新颖的机构设计，为滑翔机器鱼提供先进的控制算法，并提供对平台可靠性至关重要的有价值的包装解决方案。该项目可能开创水环境监测的新纪元，因此具有潜在的变革性。这个快速项目中开发的技术将通过提供灵活的、分布式的、低开销的动态采样覆盖，对未来多年的墨西哥湾漏油清理和监测工作产生影响。它还将影响许多其他领域，如监测水生生态系统、港口和港口安全以及饮用水安全。该项目将与国际和平协会已经参与的许多外联活动结合起来。特别是，与机器鱼游泳相关的展览将于2010年10月在国家广场举行的首届美国科学与工程节上展出，以激发数千名年轻学生对科学和工程的兴趣。

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to have devastating impact on the environment, ecosystem, and local economy for many years to come. Monitoring and tracking the oil plume is critical for cleanup efforts, beach closure warnings, protection of sensitive areas, and understanding of the spill?s environmental and ecological impacts. There is an urgent need for new, efficient, and economical technology for ubiquitous monitoring of the oil spill. The proposed one-year RAPID project responds to this need and aims to develop and deploy a school of small, cost-effective, energy efficient gliding robotic fish for dynamic and continuous monitoring of coastal areas of the Gulf for detection and tracking of oil plumes, both on and under the sea surface. This grand goal will be achieved through intensive research and development efforts in three areas:- Design and development of gliding robotic fish. Through gliding mechanism design, tail-glider integration, and packaging scheme development, we will achieve the desired specifications on the maximum dive depth, travel speed, duration of continuous operation, and reliability.- Realization of autonomy, through onboard instrumentation, modeling and control of robot dynamics, and design of communication and coordination protocols. The autonomy will enable robots to work reliably in bumpy waters, avoid obstacles, and maintain network connectivity.- Demonstration and deployment in the Gulf. Gliding robotic fish equipped with compact crude oil sensors will be deployed to detect and track oil plumes in the Gulf, with technology transfer pursued at the same time for wide availability of the developed sensing platform.Intellectual Merit. With the pressing need from the ongoing Gulf crisis, this project is expected to rapidly advance gliding robotic fish-based mobile sensing technology, from the current preliminary laboratory prototypes to robust and cost-effective products that will succeed in real, harsh environments such as the Gulf of Mexico. In particular, the project will result in novel mechanism designs for small gliders, advanced control algorithms for gliding robotic fish, and valuable packaging solutions that are critical for the platform reliability. This project could usher in a new era in aquatic environmental monitoring and is thus potentially transformative.Broader Impacts. The developed technology in this RAPID project will impact the cleanup and monitoring efforts for the Gulf oil spill for many years to come, by offering flexible, distributed, dynamic sampling coverage with low overhead. It will also impact many other areas, such as monitoring of aquatic ecosystems, harbor and port security, and drinking water safety. The project will be integrated with many outreach activities that the PI has already been involved in. In particular, a related exhibit Swimming with Robotic Fish will be presented at the inaugural US Science and Engineering Festival on the National Mall in October 2010, to pique the interest of thousands of young students in science and engineering.