Augmentation of NREC s Unmanned Surface Vessel for Maritime Automony Research
Abstract
ABSTRACT Title: Augmentation of Unmanned Surface Vessel for Maritime Autonomy Research Carnegie Mellon UniversityÕs National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) requests funding from the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program for the acquisition of maritime autonomy and navigation sensing equipment. This equipment will be used to augment the boat acquired by NREC (using a DURIP grant) and result in its deployment as a functioning Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV). This acquisition is critical to extend the NREC USV research initiative and its related research projects that serve the interests of the Navy. The DURIP-funded boat is a great resource for NRECÕs maritime robotics research, empowering on-water deployment of sensors on this drive-by-wire vessel. NREC is using internal resources to equip the boat with additional computing as well as a new Velodyne Puck (VLP-16) sensor for added obstacle detection and mapping capabilities. We seek two additional capabilities to complete the USV: a dedicated maritime positioning system (GPS/INS) and a maritime imaging sonar system. The positioning system enables full closed-loop autonomous vessel operations, and also provides ground truth data to expand GPS denied research and quantitative evaluation. The imaging sonar enables research in mapping the underwater environment, a critical capability to avoid accidental grounding, and is relevant to both USV and Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) research. These two pieces of sensing equipment will provide a multiplying effect to the possible research topics that can utilize the NREC USV. The proposed systems will augment NRECÕs active maritime research and education. This includes our ongoing research for the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program. NREC intends to leverage the equipment identified in this proposal to support its role in the development of ACTUVÕs path planner; the key component of the vesselÕs autonomy system. Both the positioning and the imaging sonar will also support an ongoing Phase 2 SBIR that is already addressing maritime GPS denied navigation. The combined USV and sensing components will facilitate a full range of maritime autonomy research topics.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 22, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512884
Entities
People
- Peter Rander
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy