Article
Robotics
Matteo Franchi, Alessandro Ridolfi, Benedetto Allotta
Summary: One of the significant challenges in the underwater domain is retrieving the position of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in the surrounding environment. Reliable navigation systems, particularly using forward-looking SONARs (FLS) to aid navigation, are crucial for performing complex tasks and missions. Employing a compact navigation architecture with FLS-based navigation can provide significant benefits to the marine robotics community.
JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Ocean
Alessandro Bucci, Leonardo Zacchini, Matteo Franchi, Alessandro Ridolfi, Benedetto Allotta
Summary: This study aims to develop and evaluate a navigation strategy for AUVs based on optical payloads, using cameras for navigation in particular working conditions where other sensors may not be effective. The research focuses on key steps such as feature detection and outliers removal algorithms, and addresses challenging conditions of underwater environments for a feature-based navigation system.
APPLIED OCEAN RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Robotics
Leonardo Zacchini, Matteo Franchi, Alessandro Ridolfi
Summary: Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are used for scientific research, facing challenges in survey design due to unpredictable environmental conditions and sensor acquisitions. This paper presents a probabilistic framework to enable AUVs to autonomously conduct underwater surveys and ensure adequate coverage of target areas.
JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Civil
Alexandre Immas, Mohammad-Reza Alam
Summary: This article presents guidance, navigation, and control systems for driving autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to establish a permanent optical network between the deep sea and the surface. The challenge lies in guaranteeing a path through the AUV network that can relay the signal for an unlimited time within the finite battery life of the AUVs. By combining decentralized model predictive control (D-MPC) with graph theory, the guidance system can calculate the trajectory of each agent relaying the optical signal and form local leader-follower formations with redundant agents. The D-MPC solves a constrained optimization problem to enable immediate re-routing of the ad hoc network if a leader fails to relay the signal, and the combination with graph theory allows the dynamic topology of the swarm to change and relay the optical signal indefinitely.
IEEE JOURNAL OF OCEANIC ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Wenyu Cai, Ziqiang Liu, Meiyan Zhang, Shuaishuai Lv, Chengcai Wang
Summary: This article proposes a formation control method for multi-AUV systems in complex IoUT to improve the timeliness of data. By introducing state prediction estimation and a Gaussian prediction model, the issue of unreliable underwater acoustic communication is addressed. Additionally, a metric called formation uniform degree is proposed to measure the degree of queue uniformity, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated.
IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Robotics
Abdullah Al RedwanNewaz, Tauhidul Alam, Gregory Murad Reis, Leonardo Bobadilla, Ryan N. Smith
Summary: There is significant interest in using AUVs and ASVs for persistent ocean surveillance, with studies focusing on understanding physical phenomena and complex planning and navigation problems. A novel POMDP methodology is proposed to address uncertainties in motion, sensing, and environment, with a focus on incorporating energy efficiency and environmental costs optimization. The proposed Energy Cost-Constrained POMCP algorithm is scalable and aims to optimize energy and environment costs while achieving goal-driven rewards.
IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Robotics
James Keane, Keith F. Joiner, Sanjeev Arulampalam, Russ Webber
Summary: This study expedites the process of AUV returning to the operator's vessel through a custom homing behavior. By using a directional acoustic transponder, the AUV achieves accurate homing with range and bearing data. The study analyzes the results from simulations and field trials through a modular and experimental Test & Evaluation framework. This research is of great importance in improving the operational and engineering trust of AUVs.
JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Marine
Yueyang Ben, Yan Sun, Qian Li, Xinle Zang
Summary: This paper proposes a novel leader-slave cooperative navigation algorithm based on factor graph, which improves the positioning accuracy of AUVs by introducing bearing angle measurements, showing superiority in terms of computation complexity and estimation accuracy.
Article
Engineering, Marine
Yunfeng Li, Bo Wang, Ye Li, Zhuoyan Liu, Wei Huo, Yueming Li, Jian Cao
Summary: This paper proposes a visual single-object tracker for underwater vehicles in marine organism grasping tasks. It addresses the issues of sample imbalance and exclusion of similar objects through hybrid training and motion-based post-processing. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves significant improvement in accuracy and stability compared to state-of-the-art methods on various benchmarks.
Article
Robotics
Paul Stankiewicz, Yew T. Tan, Marin Kobilarov
Summary: This paper investigates the use of autonomous underwater vehicles equipped with sensors to construct water quality models for assessing environmental hazards. Adaptive sampling strategies on Gaussian process stochastic models and two informative path planning algorithms are employed to identify multiple regions of interest in a three-dimensional environment. Field experiments validate the capability of the approach to quickly explore a given area and increase sampling density around regions of interest without sacrificing model fidelity.
JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS
(2021)
Article
Robotics
Enrico Simetti, Giovanni Indiveri, Antonio M. Pascoal
Summary: This paper presents the main results of the European H2020 WiMUST project, which focused on developing a system of cooperative autonomous underwater vehicles and autonomous surface vehicles for geotechnical surveying. It discusses the robotic technologies and methodologies employed, software architecture, lessons learnt from field tests, and field results from a survey campaign in the Atlantic Ocean.
JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Civil
Alessandro Bucci, Matteo Franchi, Alessandro Ridolfi, Nicola Secciani, Benedetto Allotta
Summary: Ensuring accurate navigation for an AUV is crucial for its surveillance, monitoring, and inspection missions. Most navigation filters for AUVs are based on Bayesian estimators and use instruments like Doppler velocity log. The use of payload sensors, such as cameras or forward-looking SONARs, has emerged as an interesting research field to reduce localization error drift. Two different frameworks, a centralized iterative UKF-based approach and a sensor fusion framework with parallel local UKFs, were implemented and compared.
IEEE JOURNAL OF OCEANIC ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Robotics
Yingqiang Wang, Ruoyu Hu, S. H. Huang, Zhikun Wang, Peizhou Du, Wencheng Yang, Ying Chen
Summary: Underwater positioning is crucial for navigation and geo-referencing of AUVs. Traditional methods like GPS are not feasible in underwater environments, leading to the importance of acoustic methods like USBL positioning systems. However, the high cost and complexity of classical USBL systems hinder their widespread adoption, which is addressed by the piUSBL positioning method.
IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Lei Yang, Yuanqi Zhang, Xaojie Li, Baoxiang Feng, Xinze Chen, Jingjing Huang, Ting Yang, Darui Zhu, Aimin Zhang, Xiangqian Tong
Summary: This paper explores the effects of the hull of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) on underwater wireless power transfer systems. The study evaluates the features and performance differences of underwater capacitive wireless power transfer (UCWPT) and underwater inductive wireless power transfer (UIWPT) systems through simulation and experimentation. The findings provide valuable insights for designing AUV underwater wireless power transfer systems.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Jacob Anderson, Geoffrey A. Hollinger
Summary: This paper introduces a decentralized communication planning algorithm for cooperative terrain-based navigation with autonomous underwater vehicles. The algorithm builds a directed acyclic graph through simulations to provide a minimum cost communication schedule, and its effectiveness is validated through field trials.
Article
Robotics
Matteo Franchi, Alessandro Ridolfi, Benedetto Allotta
Summary: One of the significant challenges in the underwater domain is retrieving the position of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in the surrounding environment. Reliable navigation systems, particularly using forward-looking SONARs (FLS) to aid navigation, are crucial for performing complex tasks and missions. Employing a compact navigation architecture with FLS-based navigation can provide significant benefits to the marine robotics community.
JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Ocean
Alessandro Bucci, Leonardo Zacchini, Matteo Franchi, Alessandro Ridolfi, Benedetto Allotta
Summary: This study aims to develop and evaluate a navigation strategy for AUVs based on optical payloads, using cameras for navigation in particular working conditions where other sensors may not be effective. The research focuses on key steps such as feature detection and outliers removal algorithms, and addresses challenging conditions of underwater environments for a feature-based navigation system.
APPLIED OCEAN RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Civil
Daniele Sebino Terracciano, Riccardo Costanzi, Vincenzo Manzari, Mirko Stifani, Andrea Caiti
Summary: This article presents an experimental assessment of a 2-D AVS derived from a sonobuoy and mounted on a hybrid autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for estimating the bearing of underwater sources. The results show that using sonobuoys and AVSs can achieve effective bearing estimation with good performance and lower costs and risks. Among different processing methods, the time-frequency domain method demonstrates better capability in identifying multiple sources.
IEEE JOURNAL OF OCEANIC ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Robotics
Leonardo Zacchini, Matteo Franchi, Alessandro Ridolfi
Summary: Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are used for scientific research, facing challenges in survey design due to unpredictable environmental conditions and sensor acquisitions. This paper presents a probabilistic framework to enable AUVs to autonomously conduct underwater surveys and ensure adequate coverage of target areas.
JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Civil
Alessandro Bucci, Matteo Franchi, Alessandro Ridolfi, Nicola Secciani, Benedetto Allotta
Summary: Ensuring accurate navigation for an AUV is crucial for its surveillance, monitoring, and inspection missions. Most navigation filters for AUVs are based on Bayesian estimators and use instruments like Doppler velocity log. The use of payload sensors, such as cameras or forward-looking SONARs, has emerged as an interesting research field to reduce localization error drift. Two different frameworks, a centralized iterative UKF-based approach and a sensor fusion framework with parallel local UKFs, were implemented and compared.
IEEE JOURNAL OF OCEANIC ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Civil
Leonardo Zacchini, Alberto Topini, Matteo Franchi, Nicola Secciani, Vincenzo Manzari, Lorenzo Bazzarello, Mirko Stifani, Alessandro Ridolfi
Summary: This article reports the development of an automatic target recognition (ATR) methodology to identify and localize objects of potential interest (OPIs) in forward-looking sonar (FLS) imagery. The study focuses on seabed inspection using acoustic sensors and successfully validates the ATR strategy with collected data.
IEEE JOURNAL OF OCEANIC ENGINEERING
(2023)
Editorial Material
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Silvio Cocuzza, Alberto Doria, Benedetto Allotta
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
(2023)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Lorenzo Bartalucci, Nicola Secciani, Chiara Brogi, Alberto Topini, Andrea Della Valle, Alessandro Ridolfi, Benedetto Allotta
Summary: This study presents a modular mechatronic hand exoskeleton system designed to enhance the immersivity of virtual reality. The prototype is equipped with force and pose sensors and operated by a Bowden-cable-based remote actuation system. A procedure for reconstructing HMI force based on measured force and position signals using a kinematic and dynamic model is proposed and tested, showing a percentage error below 15% in tracing forces to the end-effector.
Article
Engineering, Marine
Edoardo Topini, Francesco Fanelli, Alberto Topini, Miles Pebody, Alessandro Ridolfi, Alexander B. Phillips, Benedetto Allotta
Summary: Accurate and robust navigation and localisation systems are crucial for AUVs to perform missions in challenging environments where GPS is not available underwater. To address the limitations of DVL and DVL-denied environments, a DL-based approach has been developed to estimate the vehicle's body-frame velocity in a DR navigation strategy. This work describes the framework, from data gathering to data pre-processing and velocity prediction, and presents a comprehensive offline comparison between different DL-based models to assess the proposed approach's validity.
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Leonardo Zacchini, Alessandro Ridolfi, Benedetto Allotta
Summary: Mobile robots are important tools for gathering knowledge of the environment and monitoring areas of interest and industrial assets. Informative Path Planning methodologies have been successfully applied in autonomous information acquisition and exploration. However, the effectiveness of these methodologies decreases as the exploration/gathering progresses. This paper introduces an innovative informed expansion methodology that combines Kernel Density Estimation and rejection sampling to improve the performance of the algorithm.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Mirco Vangi, Chiara Brogi, Alberto Topini, Nicola Secciani, Alessandro Ridolfi
Summary: In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of people with disabilities, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. At the same time, there have been advancements in robotics in the medical field, leading to the development of low-cost wearable solutions. The Mechatronics and Dynamic Modelling Lab at the University of Florence has created a new version of a wearable hand exoskeleton for assistive purposes. The lab has also developed a regression method to predict finger angle position using sEMG data and previous finger position.
Proceedings Paper
Automation & Control Systems
Matteo Bresciani, Giovanni Peralta, Francesco Ruscio, Lorenzo Bazzarello, Andrea Caiti, Riccardo Costanzi
Summary: This study focuses on developing a marine system involving autonomous mobile nodes, utilizing strategies based on acoustic localization systems to address the lack of GPS signal in underwater environments.
2021 IEEE/RSJ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT ROBOTS AND SYSTEMS (IROS)
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Manufacturing
Matteo Bianchi, Alessandro Ridolfi, Nicola Secciani, Michaela Servi, Yary Volpe
Summary: This study focuses on the development of a low-cost hand scanner for acquiring anthropometric measures, which are then used to tailor the dimensions of a hand exoskeleton utilized for assistive and rehabilitation purposes.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERACTIVE DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING - IJIDEM
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Marine
Alba Ricondo, Laura Cagigal, Beatriz Perez-Diaz, Fernando J. Mendez
Summary: This research presents a site-specific metamodel based on the SWASH numerical model simulations, which can predict coastal hydrodynamic variables in a fast and efficient manner. The metamodel uses downscaled and dimensionality reduced synthetic database to accurately reproduce wave setup, wave heights associated with different frequency bands, and wave runup. This method has great potential in coastal risk assessments, early warning systems, and climate change projections.
Article
Engineering, Marine
Xiao Yu, Wangjun Ren, Bukui Zhou, Li Chen, Xiangyun Xu, Genmao Ren
Summary: This study investigated and compared the compression responses and energy absorption capacities of coral sand and silica sand at a strain rate of approximately 1000 s-1. The results showed that coral sand had significantly higher energy absorption capacity than silica sand due to its higher compressibility. The study findings suggest that using poorly graded coral sand can improve its energy absorption capacity.
Article
Engineering, Marine
Jingxi Zhang, Junmin Mou, Linying Chen, Pengfei Chen, Mengxia Li
Summary: This paper proposes a cooperative control scheme for ship formation tracking based on Model Predictive Control. A predictive observer is designed to estimate the current motion states of the leader ship using delayed motion information. Comparative simulations demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller.
Article
Engineering, Marine
Yu Yao, Danni Zhong, Qijia Shi, Ji Wu, Jiangxia Li
Summary: This study proposes a 2DH numerical model based on Boussinesq equations to investigate the impact of dredging reef-flat sand on wave characteristics and wave-driven current. The model is verified through wave flume experiments and wave basin experiments, and the influences of incident wave conditions and pit morphological features on wave characteristics are examined.
Article
Engineering, Marine
Jayanta Shounda, Krishnendu Barman, Koustuv Debnath
Summary: This study investigates the double-average turbulence characteristics of combined wave-current flow over a rough bed with different spacing arrangements. The results show that a spacing ratio of p/r=4 offers the highest resistance to the flow, and the double-average Reynolds stress decreases throughout the flow depth. The advection of momentum-flux of normal stress shows an increase at the outer layer and a decrease near the bed region after wave imposition. Maximum turbulence kinetic energy production and diffusion occur at different layers. The turbulence structure is strongly anisotropic at the bottom region and near the outer layer, with a decrease in anisotropy observed with an increase in roughness spacing.
Article
Engineering, Marine
Meng Zhang, Lianghui Sun, Yaoguo Xie
Summary: The research proposes a method for online identification of wave bending and torsional moment in hull structures. For structures without large openings, the method optimizes sensor positions and establishes a mathematical model to improve accuracy. For structures with large openings, a joint dual-section monitoring method is proposed to simultaneously identify bending and torsional moments in multiple key cross sections.
Article
Engineering, Marine
Longming Chen, Shutao Li, Yeqing Chen, Dong Guo, Wanli Wei, Qiushi Yan
Summary: This study investigated the dynamic response characteristics and damage modes of pile wharves subjected to underwater explosions. The results showed that the main damaged components of the pile wharf were the piles, and inclined piles had a higher probability of moderate or more significant damage compared to vertical piles. The study also suggested that replacing inclined piles with alternative optimized structures benefits the blast resistance of pile wharves.
Article
Engineering, Marine
I. -C Kim, G. Ducrozet, V. Leroy, F. Bonnefoy, Y. Perignon, S. Bourguignon
Summary: Previous research focused on the accuracy and efficiency of short-term wave fields in specific prediction zones, while we developed algorithms for continuous wave prediction based on the practical prediction zone and discussed important time factors and strategies to reduce computational costs.
Article
Engineering, Marine
Hang Xie, Xianglin Dai, Fang Liu, Xinyu Liu
Summary: This study investigates the load characteristics of a three-dimensional stern model with pitch angle through a drop test, and reveals complex characteristics of pressure distribution near the stern shaft. The study also shows that the vibration characteristics of the load are influenced by the drop height and pitch angle, with the drop height having a greater effect on the high-frequency components.
Article
Engineering, Marine
Hangyuan Zhang, Wanli Yang, Dewen Liu, Xiaokun Geng, Wangyu Dai, Yuzhi Zhang
Summary: The deep-water bridge is more vulnerable to earthquake damage than the bridge standing in air. The larger blocking ratio has a significant impact on the added mass coefficient, which requires further comprehensive study. The generation mechanism of block effect is analyzed using numerical simulation software ANSYS Fluent. The results show that the recirculation zone with focus reduces the pressure on the back surface of the cylinder, resulting in the peak value of in-line force not occurring synchronously with the peak value of acceleration. The change in position and intensity of the recirculation zone with focus, as well as the change in water flow around the cylinder surface, are identified as the generation mechanism of the block effect, which has a 10% influence on the hydrodynamic force. The changing rule of the added mass coefficient with blocking ratio is discussed in detail, and a modification approach to the current added mass coefficient calculation method is suggested. Physical experiments are conducted to validate the modification approach, and the results show that it is accurate and can be used in further study and real practice.
Article
Engineering, Marine
Golnesa Karimi-Zindashti, Ozgur Kurc
Summary: This study examines the performance of an in-house code utilizing a deterministic vortex method on the rotation of circular and square cylinders. The results show that rotational motion reduces drag forces, suppresses fluctuating forces, and increases lift forces. The code accurately predicts vortex shedding suppression and identifies the emergence of near-field wakes in the flow over rotating square cylinders.
Article
Engineering, Marine
George Dafermos, George Zaraphonitis
Summary: The survivability of damaged ships is of great importance and the regulatory framework is constantly updated. The introduction of the probabilistic damage stability framework has rationalized the assessment procedure. Flooding simulation tools can be used to investigate the dynamic response of damaged ships.
Article
Engineering, Marine
Xuyue Chen, Xu Du, Chengkai Weng, Jin Yang, Deli Gao, Dongyu Su, Gan Wang
Summary: This paper proposes a real-time drilling parameters optimization method for offshore large-scale cluster extended reach drilling based on intelligent optimization algorithm and machine learning. By establishing a ROP model with long short-term memory neurons, and combining genetic algorithm, differential evolution algorithm, and particle swarm algorithm, the method achieves real-time optimization of drilling parameters and significantly improves the ROP.
Article
Engineering, Marine
Sung-Jae Kim, Chungkuk Jin, MooHyun Kim
Summary: This study investigates the dynamic behavior of a moored submerged floating tunnel (SFT) under tsunami-like waves through numerical simulations and sensitivity tests. The results show that design parameters significantly affect the dynamics of the SFT system and mooring tensions, with shorter-duration and higher-elevation tsunamis having a greater impact.
Article
Engineering, Marine
G. Clarindo, C. Guedes Soares
Summary: Environmental contours are constructed using the Inverse-First Order Reliability Method based on return periods. The paper proposes the use of the Burr distribution to model the marginal distribution of long-term significant wave heights. The newly implemented scheme results in different environmental contours compared to the reference approach.