MRI: Track-1: Acquisition of marine multirobot systems for underwater monitoring and construction

水下调查为负责保护独特的水下考古和文化遗产遗址的联邦、州和地方机构提供关键信息。通过该奖项获得的仪器所实现的研究重点是探索技术和原则，这些技术和原则指导用于控制和设计水上机器人的算法和计算系统的开发，以研究：水下机器人建造或脚手架，以保护脆弱的生态系统;多机器人通信和协调监测;以及水下探索和测绘。该项目促进了不同学科（工程，环境研究，生物科学和人类学）研究人员之间的合作。获得的仪器将为各级学生提供机会，在研究，编程和体验式学习方面具有实践经验，并向公众宣传来自实地实验的挑战和见解。实验性监测的结果很可能会提高公众对该地区环境挑战的认识。该仪器将使研究人员能够研究实现水中自主运动和操纵所需的原理、算法和系统，包括收集有关物理变化和污染物的数据，协助搜救，建造水下结构，以及记录水下和文化遗产。全球定位、机器人之间或与远程计算机之间的高速通信以及人工维修等新挑战带来了新的挑战。研究人员的目标是建立一个通用的计算框架，以便精确模拟，设计，优化和规划与沉浸在流体环境中的施工活动相关的各种物理过程。通过使用更复杂的模型，他们希望创建一个实时决策框架，其中包括约束和优化标准，并可以适应不断变化的上下文推理。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Underwater surveys provide critical information to federal, state, and local agencies charged with protecting unique underwater archeological and cultural heritage sites. The research enabled by the instruments to be acquired with this award is focused on an exploration of techniques and principles that guide the development of algorithms and computational systems for control and design of water robots to study: Underwater robotic construction or scaffolding to protect delicate ecologies; multirobot communication and coordination for monitoring; and underwater exploration and mapping. This project fosters collaboration among researchers in diverse disciplines (engineering, environmental studies, biological science, and anthropology). The instrumentation acquired will provide opportunities to students at all levels with hands-on experience in research, programming, and experiential learning, and public outreach communicate the challenges and insights derived from field experiments. The findings from experimental monitoring will most likely augment public awareness of the environmental challenges for the area. The instrumentation will enable investigators to study principles, algorithms, and systems needed to enable autonomous locomotion and manipulation in water, including gathering data about physical changes and pollutants, aiding in search-and-rescue, constructing underwater structures, and documenting underwater and cultural heritage. New challenges such as global positioning, high speed communication between robots or with a remote computer, and human access for repair pose new challenges. The investigators aim to establish a versatile computational framework to enable the precise simulation, design, optimization and planning of various physical processes related to the construction activities immersed in a fluid environment. Using more complex models, they expect to create a real-time decision framework that includes constraints and optimization criteria and can adapt to changing contexts reasoning.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.