Eric T. Steimle

Robot-Assisted Bridge Inspection

The Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR®) deployed a customized AEOS man-portable unmanned surface vehicle and two commercially available underwater vehicles (the autonomous YSI EcoMapper and the tethered VideoRay) for inspection of the Rollover Pass bridge in the Bolivar peninsula of Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. A preliminary domain analysis with the vehicles identified key tasks in subsurface bridge inspection (mapping of the debris field and inspecting the bridge footings for scour), control challenges (navigation under loss of GPS, underwater obstacle avoidance, and stable positioning in high currents without GPS), possible improvements to human-robot interaction (having additional display units so that mission specialists can view and operate on imagery independently of the operator control unit, incorporating 2-way audio to allow operator and field personnel to communicate while launching or recovering the vehicle, and increased state sensing for reliability), and discussed the cooperative use of surface, underwater, and aerial vehicles. The article posits seven milestones in the development of a fully functional UMV for bridge inspection: standardize mission payloads, add health monitoring, improve teleoperation through better human-robot interaction, add 3D obstacle avoidance, improve station-keeping, handle large data sets, and support cooperative sensing.

In situ nitrite measurements using a compact spectrophotometric analysis system

Abstract Application of a portable spectrophotometric analysis system for measurement of nitrite in seawater is described in this work. The spectral analysis system (SEAS) used for observations of the primary nitrite maximum (PNM) has an operational depth of 500 m and is capable of fully autonomous data acquisition and analysis. The liquid core waveguides (LCWs) used as optical cells in SEAS allow for optical pathlengths as long as 5 m and provide subnanomolar detection limits for a variety of analytes. The 1-m waveguide used in the present study had an internal volume of 0.52 cm 3 and provided NO 2 − measurement precisions and detection limits on the order of 1.2 and 2.5 nM. The time required for a complete in situ analysis, approximately 3–5 min, allows acquisition of detailed profiles on time scales commensurate with the duration of typical hydrocast operations. NO 2 − profiles in the Gulf of Mexico showed very sharp gradients over a 5–10-m depth range and a primary nitrite maximum between 100 and 130 m. A shoulder was often observed approximately 10 m below the primary maximum, with relatively slowly decreasing NO 2 − concentrations at increasing depth.

Marine heterogeneous multirobot systems at the great Eastern Japan Tsunami recovery

This field report describes two deployments of heterogeneous unmanned marine vehicle teams at the 2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake response and recovery by the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (USA) in collaboration with the International Rescue System Institute (Japan). Four remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) were fielded in Minamisanriku and Rikuzentakata from April 18 to 24, 2011, for port clearing and victim recovery missions using sonar and video. The ROVs were used for multirobot operations only 46% of the time due to logistics. The teleoperated ROVs functioned as a dependent team 86% of the time to avoid sensor interference or collisions. The deployment successfully reopened the Minamisanriku New Port area and searched areas prohibited to divers in Rikuzentakata. The IRS-CRASAR team planned to return from October 18 to 28, 2011, with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), and an ROV to conduct debris mapping for environmental remediation missions. The intent was to investigate an interdependent strategy by which the UAV and AUV would rapidly conduct low-resolution scans identifying areas of interest for further investigation by the ROV. The UAV and AUV could not be used; however, the ROV was able to cover 80,000 m2 in 6 h, finding submerged wreckage and pollutants in areas previously marked clear by divers. The field work (i) showed that the actual and planned multirobot system configurations did not fall neatly into traditional taxonomies, (ii) identified a new measure, namely perceptual confidence, and (iii) posed five open research questions for multirobot systems operating in littoral regions.

Sea Robot-Assisted Inspection

The sea robot-assisted inspection (Sea-RAI) marsupial robot team is the first known manportable unmanned surface vehicle (USV) that hosts an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The Sea-RAI is designed for inspecting littoral environments for military, environmental, and disaster-response applications. The project also provides a platform for exploring the four roles in a marsupial team: courier, messenger, manager, and coach. The cooperation between the vehicles extends their capabilities beyond the capabilities of a single vehicle. This article describes the robot team, details the design and construction of low-cost USVs, and describes the demonstration of the integrated system and the four key capabilities, such as seaworthiness, data display, marsupialism, and mission logging.

Use of remotely operated marine vehicles at Minamisanriku and Rikuzentakata Japan for disaster recovery

Three underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) were used over a five day period to inspect critical infrastructure and to assist with victim search and recovery at six sites in the Iwate Prefecture following the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. Unmanned marine vehicles have been used since 2004 for disaster recovery operations but in limited applications, in single areas, and in short deployment durations. The joint IRS-CRASAR deployment matched robots for missions specified by civilian municipalities and the Japanese Coast Guard. The ROVs successfully allowed a fishing port to be re-opened and searched for victims trapped underwater in five different locations in varying areas (marinas, bridge debris, and waterfront residential areas) that could not be searched by manual divers. From a scientific perspective, the deployment provides a corpus of 15 hours of data of how rescue robots can be used. It illustrates that rescue robots are i) valuable for both economic and victim recovery, not just response, ii) that disaster robots need to be optimized for the unique missions and stakeholder needs, and iii) that human-robot interaction remains a challenge. This paper also identifies new areas for research: computer vision and cognitive engineering, cyber-physical systems, heterogeneous multi-robot coordination, human-robot interaction, simulation and geographical information systems.

Design and applications of a chemical sensor compatible with autonomous ocean-sampling networks

Autonomous ocean-sampling networks (AOSN) are under development to provide detailed descriptions of the oceans physical and chemical characteristics. Such networks require sensors capable of adaptive observations within dynamic geophysical and geochemical fields. We have developed a high-sensitivity spectrophotometric chemical sensor (SEAS) consistent with AOSN requirements. In this work, we describe the configurations and capabilities of SEAS and its potential role in an automated sampling network.

Sensor development: progress towards systems for AUVs/UUVs MTS Oceans 2000

The oceanographic community is seeing new and substantial advances in the development of underwater vehicles. The future is near when we will witness networked fleets that will acquire synoptic data over wide areas. The potential of multiple, concurrent AUV/UUV deployments promises the ocean research community with increased data accuracy, the elimination of spatial and temporal aliasing, and more efficient and cost-effective means of data dissemination. To complement these advances in AUV/UUV technology, we will need continued development of new and more sophisticated sensor systems, to expand our understanding of the oceans processes. The University of South Floridas Center for Ocean Technology specializes in developing sensor systems to meet the ever-increasing need of oceanographers to collect high-resolution data relating to the chemical, biological and physical processes of the ocean. This paper presents up-to-date information about three of those instruments.

Combining Data Collection from Unmanned Surface Vehicles with Geospatial Analysis: Tools for Improving Surface Water Sampling, Monitoring, and Assessment

Tidal rivers and accompanying coastal environments represent critical links between the open estuary and the local tributary and watershed. In Florida, these coastal ecosystems are multi-use systems. They are often a primary source of water for agricultural, industrial, and human consumption all while functioning as commercial and recreational shipping thoroughfares and receiving storm water runoff and NPDES discharges. In addition to their importance for those direct human uses, their quality and characteristics directly affect the spawning, nursery, and juvenile habitats for numerous commercial and sport fisheries. Thus monitoring and assessment, especially identifying spatial patterns or trends in water chemistry (e.g. temperature, conductivity, salinity, turbidity, chlorophyll, dissolved organic matter and dissolved gasses), of these tidal environments can represent a complex sampling and analysis challenge. There is a perception that sampling and analyzing parameters at regularly spaced intervals over the surface area of a river system will be representative of general trends. However, standard sampling strategy assumes both that parameters will change in a consistent longitudinal and downstream manner and that the average of a parameter is the level where negative impacts occur. Using an innovative combination of unmanned surface vehicles (US V) and geospatial analytical techniques, we will show that this perception is not an entirely accurate or complete view.