Unmanned surface vehicles: An overview of developments and challenges

Underwater autonomous manipulation for intervention missions AUVs

Fuzzy logic control, due to its simple control structure, easy and cost-effective design, has been successfully employed to the application of guidance and control in robotic fields. This paper aims to review fuzzy-logic-based guidance and control in an important branch of robots—marine robotic vehicles. First, guidance and motion forms including the maneuvering, path following, trajectory tracking, and position stabilization are described. Subsequently, the application of three major classes of fuzzy logic control, including the conventional fuzzy control (Mamdani fuzzy control and Takagi–Sugeno–Kang fuzzy control), adaptive fuzzy control (self-tuning fuzzy control and direct/indirect adaptive fuzzy control), and hybrid fuzzy control (fuzzy PID control, fuzzy sliding mode control, and neuro-fuzzy control) are presented. In particular, we summarize the design and analysis process of direct/indirect adaptive fuzzy control and fuzzy PID control in marine robotic fields. In addition, two comparative results between hybrid fuzzy control and the corresponding single control are provided to illustrate the superiority of hybrid fuzzy control. Finally, trends of the fuzzy future in marine robotic vehicles are concluded based on its state of the art.

Survey on Fuzzy-Logic-Based Guidance and Control of Marine Surface Vehicles and Underwater Vehicles

Advancements in the field of autonomous underwater vehicle

This paper outlines the specifications and basic design approach taken on the development of the Girona 500, an autonomous underwater vehicle whose most remarkable characteristic is its capacity to reconfigure for different tasks. The capabilities of this new vehicle range from different forms of seafloor survey to inspection and intervention tasks.

Girona 500 AUV: From Survey to Intervention

The ocean covers about two-thirds of the earth and has a great effect on the future existence of all human beings. About 37% of the world's population lives within 100 km of the ocean. The ocean is generally overlooked as we focus our attention on land and atmospheric issues; we have not been able to explore the full depths of the ocean and its abundant living and non-living resources. For example, it is estimated that there are about 2,000 billion tons of manganese nodules on the floor of the Pacific Ocean near the Hawaiian Islands. We discovered, by using manned submersibles, that a large amount of carbon dioxide comes from the seafloor and extraordinary groups of organisms live in hydrothermal vent areas. Marine robots including unmanned surface vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles can help us better understand marine and other environmental issues, protect the ocean resources of the earth from pollution, and efficiently utilize them for human welfare. This paper briefly presents some exemplary models of recent developments in marine robots in different application areas.

Applications of marine robotic vehicles

The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Marine Robotics Technical Committee (MRTC) was first established in 2008 following the dismissal of the Underwater Robotics Technical Committee in spring 2008. The goal of the MRTC is to foster research on robots and intelligent systems that extend the human capabilities in marine environments and to promote maritime robotic applications important to science, industry, and defense. The TC organizes conferences, workshops, and special issues that bring marine robotics research to the forefront of the broader robotics community. The TC also introduces its members to the latest development of marine robotics through Web sites and online social media.

Future Trends in Marine Robotics [TC Spotlight]

In autonomous system, it is important to establish a control scheme that works with stability even near singularity configurations. We describe an online trajectory control scheme that uses the manipulability measure as a distance criteria to avoid manipulator singularities. The proposed approach consists in a method for limiting the minimum value of the distance criteria. The performance is simply affected by the choice of the lower limit. Based on a real-time evaluation of the measure of manipulability, this method does not require a preliminary knowledge of the singular configurations. The proposed algorithm is validated by experimental results.

Giacomo Marani

Papers

Underwater autonomous manipulation for intervention missions AUVs

Applications of marine robotic vehicles

Future Trends in Marine Robotics [TC Spotlight]

A real-time approach for singularity avoidance in resolved motion rate control of robotic manipulators

Future Trends in Marine Robotics