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Ref.: MTS/IEEE Oceans'2016, Shanghai (China), April 2016.
Abstract:
The WiMUST (Widely scalable Mobile Underwater Sonar Technology) project [1-2] aims at
expanding and improving the functionalities of current cooperative marine robotic systems,
effectively enabling distributed acoustic array technologies for geophysical surveying with
a view to exploration and geotechnical applications. Recent developments have shown
that there is vast potential for groups of marine robots acting in cooperation to drastically
improve the methods available for ocean exploration and exploitation. Traditionally,
seismic reflection surveying is performed by vessel towed streamers of hydrophones
acquiring reflected acoustic signals generated by acoustic sources (either towed or
onboard a vessel). In this context, geotechnical surveying for civil and commercial
applications (e.g., underwater construction, infrastructure monitoring, mapping for natural
hazard assessment, environmental mapping, etc.) aims at seafloor and sub-bottom
characterization using towed streamers of fixed length that are extremely cumbersome to
operate. The vision underlying the WiMUST project is that of developing advanced
cooperative and networked control / navigation systems to enable a large number (tens) of
marine robots (both on the surface and submerged) to interact by sharing information as a
coordinated team (not only in pairs). The WiMUST system may be envisioned as an
adaptive variable geometry acoustic array. By allowing the group of surface and
submerged vehicles to change their geometrical configuration, an end-user can
seamlessly change the geometry of the ”virtual streamer” trailing the emitter, something
that has not been achieved in practice and holds potential to drastically improve ocean
surveying. The project brings together a group of research institutions, geophysical
surveying companies and SMEs with a proven track record in autonomous adaptive and
robust systems, communications, networked cooperative control and navigation, and
marine robot design and fabrication.
The project has been favorably evaluated by the European Community within the H2020
strategic objective ICT-23-2014 - Robotics [3], action type H2020 - RIA - Research and
Innovation Action. The action activities started on February 1st, 2015 and are planned to
span a 36 month period. The project consortium is composed of nine partners: 4 academic
institutions and 5 industrial companies from Italy, United Kingdom, Portugal, Germany,
France and The Netherlands.
The objective of this paper is to briefly describe the advancements made from the
beginning of the action in terms of the methodological and technological points of view. In
particular the paper will summarize the main results so far achieved achieved in the
following areas: (i) underwater navigation exploiting single range measurements, (ii) AUV
cooperative motion control, (iii) underwater communications for networking and clock
synchronization, (iv) distributed sensor array for geotechnical and geophysical applications
and (v) mission planning.