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

无人水面机器人（USR）和无人水下机器人（UUR）具有许多重要的应用，例如安全监视，环境监测和河流，湖泊和海洋的勘探，特别是在非结构化和危险环境中。实时感知、定位和导航是自主式水面机器人和自主式水下机器人研究的重要课题。关键的挑战是为这些机器人注入“类人”智能，使其能够安全自主导航并成功完成指定任务。拟议的5年研究计划是研究实时传感，定位，路径规划，跟踪和控制自主表面和水下机器人系统，使用生物启发的智能方法。（1）水面机器人的实时无碰撞导航与控制，包括实时传感与多传感器融合，融合来自其机载传感器的信息和其他可用的传感信息，同时定位与地图绘制（SLAM），以及水面机器人的实时无碰撞路径生成与控制;以及（2）在存在未知洋流和其他不确定性的动态三维（3D）水下环境中，自主水下机器人的实时无碰撞导航和控制。将开发实验性水面和水下机器人平台，作为这项研究的试验平台。将在实验平台上开发和实施新颖的生物启发智能方法，用于多传感器融合和水面和水下机器人系统的自主导航。严格的理论研究和实验验证的新方法将进行，参考建立领先的方法。** 提出这项研究的动机是，生物系统，如鱼类和其他动物，可以有效地感知动态环境，并根据这些输入采取有效行动。拟议研究的新奇和预期意义将是为各自的研究界提供新的知识，并开发新的生物启发智能技术，用于自主水面和水下机器人的实时传感和导航，这将具有许多民用和军事应用。此外，拟议的研究将为其他研究领域提供一些生物启发方法的见解。此外，该研究计划将为机器人和智能系统领域的高素质人才的培训提供良好的机会，并产生巨大的商业和社会影响。

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.