Pedro Calado

Implementation of a Control Architecture for Networked Vehicle Systems

Abstract This paper describes the layered control architecture and its software implementation developed and used at the Underwater Systems and Technology Laboratory. The architecture is implemented as a toolchain which consists on three main entities: DUNE onboard software, Neptus command and control software and a common IMC message-based communication protocol. The LSTS software toolchain has been tested throughout various field deployments where it was used to control heterogeneous autonomous vehicles like AUVs, ASVs, UAVs and ROVs in both single and multi-vehicle operations.

AUV based multi-vehicle collaboration: Salinity studies in Mar Menor coastal lagoon

Abstract An experiment with different AUVs was carried out in the Mar Menor Coastal Lagoon from October 31 to November 5 in order to measure and assess the influence of the water from the Mar Menor on the adjacent area of the Mediterranean. This was carried out as a result of the meeting held between several institutions from the Iberian Peninsula and EEUU (see Vilanova Marine Science/Robotics Meeting 2010). The experiment was to launch several AUVs at the same time in different zones of the Mediterranean and Mar Menor lagoon. AUVs took salinity data trying to do a coordinated mission during two operative days (November 3 and November 5). Others days of the experiment were used to the vehicles preparation and error correction (November 2 and November 4). This paper presents the steps followed in preparation and operative days with the set of AUVs. This paper presents also the salinity results obtained during these missions.

A Model Predictive Control Approach to AUVs Motion Coordination

The problem of coordinating the motion of autonomous underwater vehicles under constrained acoustic communications is formulated and investigated in the context of the model predictive control (MPC) framework. The impact of acoustic communications and perturbations on the motion performance and robustness is discussed. A reach set formulation of the MPC scheme is outlined.

Coordinated control of ocean going vehicles

The experimental setup and data from the final demonstration of the FP7 Coordination for Control (C4C) project are presented and discussed in the framework of the control architecture and software implementation developed by the LSTS laboratory from Porto University. The demonstration took place in the Leixões harbor in June 2011 and involved autonomous underwater vehicles, autonomous surface vehicles, our gateways (centralized communications hub for maritime assets, supporting several types of wireless and underwater networks) and a Long Baseline system. Demonstration scenarios are presented together with the technologies developed along the project and the results obtained.

Fault Tolerant Area Coverage Using Underwater Vehicles

Abstract Multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) can be deployed to map large regions. For mapping, the desired motion plan must be lawn mover pattern to scan the bottom. In addition to motion plan constraints, AUVs are subject to limited sensing and communication ranges and some of the AUVs can fail while performing the assigned mission leg. Developing an efficient fault tolerant area coverage controller with these constraints is a difficult task. In this paper, we develop a consensus based fault tolerant area coverage controller that takes the uncertainty in environments, communication range constraints and AUV failures while covering the area with limited repeated coverage. Current approach is able to deal with agent faults located in the middle of a series of AUVs. Simulations are presented to validate the approach.