Squads of Adaptive Robots (SoAR)

SoAR专注于通过自主水下航行器（AUV）和无人水面航行器的异构舰队联网，实现海洋机器人使用的根本转变，这些舰队由能够自适应任务规划的舰队级自主发动机监督。现有的模式是单个大功率车辆、昂贵的支持船和大量的人员，目前是有限运营商的专利，而且不容易扩大规模，以满足海上风电行业的新兴需求。特别是最终用户正在寻找最具成本效益的方法来观察环境，对事件作出反应，以及监测正在运行的、退役的和损坏的结构。这种对大型车辆的依赖是由有效载荷和功率要求驱动的，以支持高级导航仪器。该项目的方法是通过开发异构AUV/USV网络的使能技术来克服这一问题。这将通过开发软件，一种新型通信和导航仪器，实现开放接口网络协议来实现。虽然这些功能将在NOC和ecoSUB auv上进行试验和演示，但目标是提供开放接口，包括ROS，以便在更广泛的车辆上实施。这些技术结合起来，将带来更低的成本和更高效的操作，从而更好地分配资产和传感器。这将促进具有成本效益的持续观察、精确检查和应急能力的提供。具体来说，这将大大提高当前先进技术的性能，在现有技术中，单个AUV根据自己有限的本地数据做出决策。这也将使微型auv的性能发生变化，使它们能够以类似的精度和车辆标准运行，成本更高。该项目包括一系列硬件、软件和系统创新，最终以多车协作、自主驱动操作演示告终。一些硬件改进，特别是新的小型混合导航设备设计，将在项目期间进行开发和验证，以供后期部署。

SoAR is focused on delivering a fundamental shift in the use of marine robotics through the networking of heterogeneous fleets of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) and uncrewed surface vehicles overseen by a fleet level autonomy engine capable of adaptive mission planning. The existing paradigm of a single high-power vehicle with expensive support vessel and large numbers of people is currently the preserve of a limited number of operators and does not scale easily to meet the emerging needs of the offshore wind sector. In particular end-users are looking for the most cost-effective means to observe the environment, respond to incidents, as well as monitoring both operational, decommissioned and wrecked structures. This dependence on large vehicles is driven by the payload and power requirements to support high-grade navigation instruments.The project's approach is to overcome this by developing enabling technology for the operation of heterogenous AUV/USV networks. This will be achieved through both the development of software, a new class of communications and navigational instrument, enabling open interface networking protocols. While these capabilities will be trialled and demonstrated on both NOC and ecoSUB AUVs, the objective is to deliver open interfacing, including ROS to enable implementation on a wide range of vehicles.Combined, these technologies will result in less expensive and more efficient operations, enabling better allocation of assets and sensors. This will promote cost-effective delivery of sustained observation, precision inspection and emergency response capabilities. Specifically, this will deliver vast performance improvements over current state-of-the-art, where an individual AUV makes decisions based on its own limited locally sourced data. This will also enable a step change in micro-AUV performance allowing them to operate with similar accuracy and standards of vehicles an order of magnitude of cost higher.The project includes a range of hardware, software and systems innovations culminating in a multi-vehicle demonstration of collaborative, autonomy-driven operation. Some of the hardware improvements, in particular the new small-scale hybrid navigator device design, will be developed and validated during the project for later deployment.