MRI: Development of an Innovative Underwater Robot Testing Facility for the Kilo Nalu Natural Coastal Marine Observatory

MRI：为基洛纳鲁自然沿海海洋观测站开发创新型水下机器人测试设施

• 批准号: 2216518
• 负责人: Michael Krieg
• 金额: $ 34.6万
• 依托单位: University of Hawaii
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2216518&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Development; Innovative; Underwater; Robot

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award supports the development of a state-of-the-art underwater robotics testing instrument in a natural coastal environment. Robotic systems are often developed in laboratory settings, where complicating factors can be controlled or removed entirely. When those robots are eventually utilized in a real-world setting, they must be optimized to interact with those unpredictable complications. This is especially true for marine robots which are heavily influenced by waves and currents in the ocean environment. This instrument will allow designers to accurately track and maintain communication with underwater robots while they troubleshoot performance issues in authentic surroundings. Having such an instrument available for public academic use at the Kilo Nalu Observatory off the coast of O’ahu will accelerate marine robot research. More capable marine robots will in turn lead to improvements in oceanographic and climate modeling, enable more informative early warning systems, and enhance the resilience of coastal and island communities. This robotic test basin will also serve as a natural classroom, teaching students both about underwater vehicle operations and mission planning and about the fundamentals of robotics in general. This educational objective is especially important to the University of Hawai’i, a minority serving institution, thus providing education and training opportunities to multiple underrepresented groups in STEM fields. The facility being created through this award is intended to provide a necessary intermediary environment between laboratory feasibility studies and full-scale oceanic implementation of marine robots. The Kilo Nalu Observatory is a permanent cabled observatory off the coast of Oahu that provides persistent power and high-speed data transfer to a number of oceanographic sensors installed in a modular fashion. The robot testing instrument will be built on this infrastructure. The requested hardware includes a set of acoustic modems, a high-accuracy acoustic localization system, and an expandable general-purpose autonomous underwater vehicle, to serve as a mobile robot testing and training platform. Together with the existing hardware, the natural laboratory will have underwater communication, tracking, docking, and charging capabilities in order to perform sophisticated field testing and training of novel vehicle subsystems, navigation and control algorithms, cooperative control methodologies, and will serve as a home base for resident underwater robots. The facility will leverage the existing University of Hawai’i underwater observatory infrastructure to reduce the time and costs required for deployment, operation, and maintenance.This project is jointly funded by the division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI), the Major Instrumentation Research Program (MRI), and the National Robotics Initiative (NRI).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这项重大研究仪器 (MRI) 奖项支持在自然沿海环境中开发最先进的水下机器人测试仪器。机器人系统通常是在实验室环境中开发的，在实验室环境中可以完全控制或消除复杂的因素。这些机器人最终要在现实世界中使用，必须对其进行优化，以应对那些不可预测的复杂情况，对于受海洋环境中的波浪和洋流影响很大的海洋机器人来说尤其如此，该仪器将使设计人员能够准确地进行操作。跟踪并保持与水下机器人的通信在瓦胡岛海岸附近的基洛纳鲁天文台提供这样的仪器供公共学术使用，同时解决真实环境中的性能问题，这将加速海洋机器人的研究，从而促进海洋学和气候的改善。该机器人测试池还将作为一个天然教室，教授学生水下航行器操作和任务规划以及一般机器人技术的基础知识。这一教育目标尤其重要夏威夷大学是一家少数族裔服务机构，从而为 STEM 领域的多个代表性不足的群体提供教育和培训机会。通过该奖项创建的设施旨在为实验室可行性研究和全面海洋研究之间提供必要的中介环境。基洛纳鲁天文台是欧胡岛海岸附近的一个永久性有线天文台，为以模块化方式安装的许多海洋传感器提供持续的电力和高速数据传输。所需的硬件包括一套声学调制解调器、高精度声学定位系统和可扩展的通用自主水下航行器，与现有硬件一起作为移动机器人测试和培训平台。该实验室将具备水下通信、跟踪、对接和充电功能，以便对新型车辆子系统、导航和控制算法、协作控制方法进行复杂的现场测试和训练，并将作为常驻水下机器人的基地。将利用现有的大学夏威夷水下观测站基础设施，以减少部署、操作和维护所需的时间和成本。该项目由土木、机械和制造创新部门 (CMMI)、重大仪器研究计划 (MRI) 和国家机器人计划 (NRI)。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。