Jörg Kalwa

The European R&D-Project MORPH: Marine robotic systems of self-organizing, logically linked physical nodes

Abstract The MORPH project (FP 7, 2012-2016) advances the novel concept of an underwater robotic system composed of a number of spatially separated mobile robot-modules, carrying complementary resources. Instead of being physically coupled, the modules are connected via communication links that rely on the flow of information among them, i. e. inter-module interactions are enabled by underwater communication networks at distant and close ranges and supported by visual perception at very close range. Without rigid links, the MSV can reconfigure itself and adapt in response to the shape of the terrain, including walls with negative slope. The MORPH concept requires qualitatively new behaviors such as adaptive sensor placement for perception and navigation, as well as environmental modeling in complex environments. On site view planning will lead to a solution well beyond the operational state of the art for underwater cliff surveys and other similar missions. A final demonstration on a vertical cliff, unfeasible automatically with todays technology, will validate the efficacy of the methods developed at the end of the project.

The GREX-Project: Coordination and control of cooperating heterogeneous unmanned systems in uncertain environments

Today, due to the current state-of-the-art of embedded systems, underwater robotic vehicles are limited in both, their autonomy and capabilities. In order to increase their utility it is advantageous to run multiple vehicles at the same time whereby each vehicle serves as individual node in an underwater network. In this context a group of leading European vehicle manufacturers and researchers set up a collaborative R&D initiative called ‘GREX’ (Latin word for a herd or flock) under the Sixth Framework Program of the EC. This paper will give a general overview and some selected results of the project with emphasis on the systems aspect.

Relative positioning of multiple underwater vehicles in the GREX project

This paper discusses estimation of relative positions of a group of autonomous underwater or surface vehicles. The solution to this problem is crucial for performing cooperated missions. It is show that the relative positioning problem is solvable when dead reckoning data is combined with mutual range data provided by some additional device, e.g. by acoustic telemetry. This data has to be distributed via an acoustic underwater communication network among the swarm members. A simple concept for the solution of the relative positioning problem is presented. This is achieved by implementing a recursive variant of a trilateration technique by means of an Extended Kalman Filter.

Final Results of the European Project GREX: Coordination and control of cooperating marine robots

Abstract The R&D project GREX which has been co-funded by the European Union within the 6th framework is finished. It started in June 2006 and faced its final evaluation in November 2009. “Grex” is the Latin word for a group or flock and for the first time ever a team of heterogeneous unmanned marine vehicles perform a coordinated, cooperative mission whereby each vehicle plays the role of a sophisticated node in a network. This presentation will give an overview about the results achieved within the challenging and ambitious project which sets a true milestone in AUV capabilities.