SWARMsSmart and Networking UnderWAter Robots in Cooperation Meshes

IONUȚ DRĂGHICI, Software DeveloperTeamnet Group

Background

• In the last years, the underwater environment is in full ascent regarding

the development of remote controlled robots and autonomous robots for

military and civil applications.

• Underwater environment is at the beginning of journey regarding the

development of robots, but the lack of legal framework does not help the

progress.

Solution

• At the moment, there are robots of

different dimensions and various

characteristics in use. In order to

collaborate in specific tasks of military and

civil applications a unified control

station is required.

• A solution that solves this issue is under

development as part of an EU project

named SWARMs (Smart and Networking

UnderWAter Robots in Cooperation

Meshes).

SWARMs Project

SWARMs

• Title: Smart and Networking UnderWAter Robots in Cooperation Meshes

• Acronym: SWAMRs

• Project identifier: ECSEL-2014-662107

• Start date of project: 01/07/2015

• End date of project: 30/06/2018

• Duration of project in months: 36

• Founder: H2020-EU.2.1.1.7. – ECSEL

• Consortium: 30 partners from 10 countries

SWARMs - Goal

• Expand the use of underwater and surfacevehicles (AUV – Autonomous UnderwaterVehicle, ROV – Remotely Operatedunderwater Vehicle, USV – UnmannedSurface Vehicle) to facilitate the conception,planning, execution of operations andmissions in a collaborative maritimeenvironment.

• This will reduce the operational costs,increase the safety of tasks and of involvedindividuals, and expand the offshore sector.

Approach

• Design and develop an integrated platformfor a new generation of autonomousmaritime and underwater operations.

• A set of software/hardware components,adopted and incorporated into the currentgeneration of maritime and underwatervehicles in order to improve:

• Autonomy

• Robustness

• Cost-effectiveness

• Reliability

Demonstrators & Scenarios

• SWARMs’ achievements will be demonstrated in three field testing sites:

• Canary Islands, Spain

• Constanta, Romania

• Hovringen, Norway

• Different scenarios and use cases:

• Corrosion prevention in offshore installations

• Monitoring of chemical pollution

• Detection, inspection and tracking of plumes

• Berm building

• Seabed Mapping

MMT (Mission Management Tool)

• MMT can be located inside the Commandand Control Station (CCS) on shore or ona vessel.

• MMT is responsible for generation ofmissions, assign tasks to robots, andsupervision of the mission.

• A human operator can interact with thesystem from MMT.

Middleware

• The middleware is responsible for receiving,process, store and disseminate messages/databetween MMT and the AUVs/ROVs/USVs.

• The distribution of middleware spans across theCCS, communication nodes and also somemodules onboard of the vehicles. The satellite andbuoy provides communication between robotvehicles and CCS.

Communication

• For the overwater communication the usage of a standard RF network provides a high bandwidth for data.

• The underwater acoustic modems provides a low bandwidth of 100 kpbs over 100 m at 50 m depth for AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle), and the length of cables in ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicle) limits the operation area.

Underwater networks

• All of the communication between the underwater robots will be directedthrough the middleware, which offers interfacing elements to thecommunication system.

• Messages related only to safety issues (e.g. similar to Traffic Alert andCollision Avoidance System - TCAS) can be transmitted directly betweenrobots with a notification to the MMT through the middleware.

• Regarding the underwater network, the medium and high frequency modemsdivide the communications between MMT and robots into two categories: MFfor telemetry, data and commands and HF for video and images.

Conclusion

• Collaborative work of underwater robots will determine the maineconomic activity in offshore missions in the near future.

• The difficulty of underwater activity is proportional with the depth of themission, the purpose of swarm of robots is to replace the human activityin this dangerous environment.

• A legal framework for maritime robots is required.

Thank you!www.teamnet.rowww.swarms.eu