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Visual-based autonomous robotic exploration of unstructured and highly dynamic environments is a complex task. We present an approach to carry out an attention-driven exploration of underwater environments. This work is aimed to grant autonomy to an exploring agent in terms of deciding where to move in function of relevant visual information. This way we could obtain close video-observations of regions...
An overview of national exploration and exploitation projects for seabed mineral resources in Japan are presented to discuss the challenges and goals of these projects. Their main targets are seafloor massive sulfide deposits (SMS), cobalt-rich crusts, and other seafloor resources. About 30 SMSs are found in the area under national jurisdiction of Japan. The inferred ore reserve of one of them at...
In robotics, nowadays, there is a strong evergrowing interest in executing replicable experiments to assess robots performance. This demand can't be easy fulfilled without established ad-hoc procedures to be followed. To this aim, an innovative software framework named DeepRuler is proposed. The presented software is able to design, automatically execute and evaluate highly replicable path-following...
In the present work, a method based on belief space planning, assuming maximum likelihood of the observations, is applied to the planning of manipulation for an underwater robotic arm. The manipulator is rigidly connected to a floating platform, such as a ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) or an AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle). The arm and platform motions are statistically independent from the motion...
This paper presents an autonomous low cost device for underwater stereo imaging and 3D reconstruction of marine organisms (benthos, fishes, macro and mega-zooplankton) and seabed with a high accuracy. The system is designed for deployments onboard autonomous, fixed and towed platforms. Internal hardware consists of two Raspberry Pi mini-PCs and two Raspberry camera modules. The operational pipeline...
The Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport (NUWCDIVNPT) and Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) completed a successful at-sea exercise with autonomous UAS and UUV systems demonstrating cross-domain unmanned system communication and collaboration. The exercise was held at the NUWC Narragansett Bay Shallow Water Test Facility (NBSWTF) range, and it represented for the first time the use of...
We present a novel path planner for adaptive behaviour of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). A behaviour-based architecture forms the foundation of the system with an extra layer which uses experience to learn a policy for modulating the behaviours' weights. In effect, this creates an abstract environment for the Reinforement Learning (RL) agent's state and action space. Subsequently, it simplifies...
The objective of the present work is to evaluate the wind energy potential in the nearshores of two enclosed seas, the Black and the Caspian seas, respectively. Furthermore, the wind conditions in the target areas are compared with those from some locations in the vicinity of several offshore wind projects from the North and the Baltic seas. In order to identify the spatial and seasonal wind patterns,...
The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) is a public consortium aimed to support R&D in the fields of ocean science and technology. PLOCAN manage a marine test site providing a set of infrastructures to facilitate the development of emerging ocean energy converters. This test site is placed at the East coast of Gran Canaria island covering a marine surface of 23 km2 and it will include...
Aeronautical engineering design projects involving rigid wingsail vehicles are described. Wingsail technology is appropriate for study by undergraduate aeronautical engineering students because it encompasses a range of topics that are already treated within the curriculum. Aeronautical engineering programs must prepare graduates to have knowledge of aerodynamics, materials, structures, propulsion,...
The European project “Wind, Ports, and Sea” (VPM), funded by the European Cross-border Programme “Italy-France Maritime 2007–2013”, aims to improve the safety conditions and to reduce the hazards by the development of a coupled monitoring and forecast system of the sea-state outside the main harbors of the Northern Tyrrhenian and Ligurian Seas. In particular, the sea and wind forecasts are evaluated...
Stereo vision and structured light are compared in a common underwater environment with known dimensions and objects. Two different sensors are mounted on top of a Cartesian robot that moves with a known and programmed trajectory. The resulting point clouds from each sensor are compared in terms of distance from point to point, and measurements in the scanned objects, to determine which sensor is...
The airwake over the helicopter platform of a Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) polar icebreaker was studied experimentally. By application of high speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) on a 1:522 scaled model of the polar icebreaker, quantitative flow filed data were obtained in several vertical and horizontal planes. Present investigation was conducted with two types of the inflow conditions: (i) a uniform...
This paper introduces the Smart Electronic Interface for Web Enabled Ocean Sensor Systems of the NeXOS project as example how interoperable standards help, to facilitate the creation of an infrastructure for sharing oceanographic observation data and the integration of sensor into marine installations. A given kind of sensor may be deployed on various platforms such as floats, gliders or moorings,...
This paper describes research undertaken by the authors to investigate the effects of tidal turbine installations using an amended numerical model. The study considers an idealised turbine installation in Orkney in the North of Scotland. The potential of the Orkney for marine renewable energy has led to the formation of the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) and provides a test site for wave and...
Coastal underwater archaeological sites are by nature dynamic, and often subject to disturbance from the action of waves, currents, sediment, and human activity. The need to document such sites comprehensively, accurately, and quickly has been the driving force behind technological advances in pre-disturbance site mapping since the 1960s. Certain challenges remain constant: the need for technology...
Autonomous manipulation in unestructured underwater scenarios is a high challenging skill that has been poorly studied and is becoming more and more important in the last years. One of the main problems regarding the autonomous manipulation, is to find out the characteristics of the object which is going to be manipulated. This paper presents a new approach to obtain an accurate 3D reconstruction...
Recent endeavours have focused on the possibility of developing multi-use marine areas that integrate open-ocean aquaculture in conjunction with marine renewable energy device deployment. Advantages of performing mariculture activities within offshore tidal stream farms are manifold, including increased spatial efficiency, shared infrastructures and reduced labour costs due to linkage of individual...
The aim of the SONIC project is to develop tools to investigate and mitigate the effects of underwater noise generated by shipping. One way to study the contribution of shipping noise to the background noise in the seas is to produce shipping noise maps. The SONIC project delivers the required technical knowledge for noise mapping, based on a source definition of shipping traffic composed of various...
Modern anti-submarine warfare sonars are often designed with narrow beamwidths and wide frequency bandwidths in order to maximize spatial resolution and sonar performance. A known issue for high-resolution sonars in littoral environments, is the occurence of high false alarm rates. Increased false alarm rates increase the workload of sonar operators and also reduces the usefullness of automatic systems...
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