Collaborative Research: Improved Vehicle Autonomy in Geophysical Flows

合作研究：提高地球物理流中的车辆自主性

• 批准号: 1462825
• 负责人: Mongying Hsieh
• 金额: $ 37万
• 依托单位: Drexel University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2017-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1462825&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Improved; Vehicle; Autonomy

Networks of autonomous underwater and surface vehicles (AUVs and ASVs) allow direct and continuous monitoring of the ocean. New deployment strategies are needed to obtain maximum coverage from a relatively small number of vessels. This will require better understanding of the structures controlling transport in geophysical flows such as ocean currents. New results show that AUV/ASV motion planning and adaptive sampling strategies are improved by incorporating models of ocean current dynamics. However, these currents change continually and apparently unpredictably, and this makes it highly challenging to take full advantage. The goals of this project are to better understand the dynamics of the dominant structures in ocean currents, and to explore their impact on AUV/ASV autonomy. Additionally, this work will produce robust motion control strategies for both single vehicles and teams of vehicles, to track desired structure boundaries, while leveraging the environmental dynamics to prolong operational lifespan. In pursuit of the project goals, the research objectives are to: 1) identify and evaluate key kinematic features that control transport in oceanic surface flows of greatest relevance to autonomous vehicle navigation and control, 2) develop a general mathematical and control framework for teams of autonomous vehicles that leverages key transport controlling features in oceanic flows for improved navigation and monitoring of dynamic and uncertain environments, and 3) apply the control framework to the tracking of salt wedge fronts using the WHOI Jetyaks to establish the transition from the laboratory to the ocean. This work has a significant experimental component that leverages the PIs' existing research infrastructure. The work addresses the theoretical and experimental challenges needed to develop a general mathematical and control framework for applying geophysical fluid dynamics to the development of novel planning, navigation, and control strategies for individual and networked teams of autonomous vehicles.

自主水下和水面航行器（AUV 和 ASV）网络可以直接、持续地监测海洋。需要新的部署策略来从相对较少数量的船只获得最大的覆盖范围。这将需要更好地了解控制洋流等地球物理流传输的结构。新结果表明，通过结合洋流动力学模型，AUV/ASV 运动规划和自适应采样策略得到了改进。然而，这些电流不断变化且明显不可预测，这使得充分利用这些电流变得极具挑战性。该项目的目标是更好地了解洋流中主要结构的动态，并探索它们对 AUV/ASV 自主性的影响。此外，这项工作将为单个车辆和车辆团队制定强大的运动控制策略，以跟踪所需的结构边界，同时利用环境动态来延长使用寿命。为了实现项目目标，研究目标是：1）识别和评估控制与自主车辆导航和控制最相关的海洋表面流动运输的关键运动学特征，2）为团队开发通用数学和控制框架自动驾驶车辆利用海洋流动中的关键运输控制功能来改进动态和不确定环境的导航和监测，以及 3) 使用 WHOI Jetyaks 将控制框架应用于盐楔前沿的跟踪，以建立从实验室到海洋的过渡。这项工作有一个重要的实验部分，它利用了 PI 现有的研究基础设施。 这项工作解决了开发通用数学和控制框架所需的理论和实验挑战，该框架将地球物理流体动力学应用于为单独和网络化的自动驾驶车辆团队开发新颖的规划、导航和控制策略。