NRI: Operating in the Abyss: Bringing Together Humans and Bio-Inpsired Autonomous Vehicles for Maritime Applications

海洋覆盖了地球表面的三分之二，驱动天气，调节温度，产生大气中大约一半的氧气，吸收大气中的大部分碳，并最终支持地球上的所有生物。 此外，海洋对人类的商业、运输、食物和生计至关重要。 然而，95%的海洋仍未被开发，自然或人为变化对地球及其居住者健康的长期影响还远未被理解。 这项调查的目的是解决在设计和操作一个持续的网络机器人系统，监测和探索与人类合作或替代人类的广阔海洋的一些挑战。 本项目旨在填补水下混合机器人技术的知识空白，在资源有限的条件下实现机器人的有效导航和协调，在恶劣的介质条件下实现机器人的路径规划。混合机器人系统的设计灵感来自海洋动物，在迁移能力和障碍物附近的精确机动之间取得了良好的平衡。该机器人将配备分布式压力和表面速度传感器，以提供车辆控制和障碍物检测的涡街识别的总流体动力。新型水下机器人驱动器也被提出，并将采用在设计和操作的一个混合类的水下机器人与高效的高速巡航和精确的低速机动能力，在许多海洋应用中所需的。这些新的传感和驱动能力促进了机器人与人类在海洋中以及障碍物、人类和其他机器人附近的安全合作。 这种新的传感信息和驱动能力的可用性也将导致我们的车辆控制，路径规划和合作方法的范式转变。 为此，将开发新的算法，并在设备齐全的水下实验室进行模拟和实验测试。 将探讨该系统在现有和新出现的海洋应用中作为人类助手或替代品的最大贡献能力。

The ocean covers about two-thirds of the planet's surface, drives weather, regulates temperature, produces about half of the oxygen in the atmosphere, absorbs most carbons from the atmosphere, and ultimately supports all living organisms on Earth. Furthermore, the ocean has been essential to humans for commerce, transport, food, and sustenance. Nevertheless, 95% of the ocean remains unexplored, and the long term impact of natural or man-made changes on the health of the planet and its occupants are far from understood. This investigation is aimed at addressing some of the challenges in the design and operation of a sustained networked robotic system for monitoring and exploring the vast ocean in cooperation with or in replacement for humans. This project proposes research that will fill the knowledge gap in underwater hybrid robotics, effective navigation and coordination of a team of robots with significant constraints and limited resources, and path planning for a team of robots in harsh mediums and with restricted resources.The proposed hybrid robotic system takes inspiration from marine animals, with a healthy balance between migratory capabilities and accurate maneuvering in proximity of obstacles. The robot will be outfitted with a distributed pressure and surface velocity sensors to provide total hydrodynamic forces for vehicle control and vortex street identification for obstacle detection. Novel underwater robotic actuators are also proposed and will be employed in the design and operation of a hybrid class of underwater robot with efficient high speed cruising and precise low speed maneuvering capabilities required in many marine applications. These new sensing and actuation capabilities facilitate safe co-operation of robots with humans in the ocean and in proximity of obstacles, humans, and other robots. Availability of such new sensory information and actuation capabilities will also result in a paradigm shift in our approach to vehicle control, path planning, and cooperation. To this end new algorithms will be developed and tested in simulations and experiments in a well-equipped underwater laboratory. The system capability to maximize its contribution as human assistants or replacements in existing and emerging marine applications will be explored.