Bioinspired Subsea Robots and Underwater Networks
KAUST Research Conference on Robotics and Autonomy 2023
Speaker: Rudolf Bannasch, Managing Director (and co-founder), EvoLogics GmbH
Abstract:
Advanced subsea robots and monitoring networks have become increasingly important for subsea exploration, environmental observation, industrial control, and maritime security. These systems face challenges ranging from shallow water to deep-sea applications. To overcome these challenges, engineers can draw inspiration from nature. Studies on the bio-sonar of dolphins provide a clue for reliable underwater communication and positioning, which is the basis for modern subsea networks and collaborative underwater robots. Pressure-resistant electronic design enables devices to operate at greater depths and reduces their size and weight. Bionic robots, inspired by fast-swimming animals such as penguins and manta rays, show excellent propulsion efficiency and maneuverability with low energy consumption. Their modular internal design, based on a common robot kit, facilitates easy adaptation to different application needs and the design of other robot systems. These subsea robots and stationary nodes are fully interoperable and can work in swarms or in heterogeneous configurations, combining different types of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), and stationary subsea networks. This flexibility provides a wide range of subsea operational capabilities. Intelligent swarm algorithms are being developed to improve collaboration between the robots. In addition, underwater docking stations will be useful for battery recharge and exchange of large data sets, or to install a swarm of resident AUVs for long-term monitoring. Recent progress in smart marine robotics has been accomplished and substantially accelerated by the implementation of Artificial Intelligence. Trained neural networks execute sensor-data fusion, real-time processing, and intelligent object recognition directly on board the vehicle. This information can be sent to the operator and/or used for operational adaptation of the corresponding subsea mission.
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Conference:
The KAUST Research Conference on Robotics and Autonomy 2023 (RobotoKAUST 2023)
Organizing Committee:
Eric Feron, Shinkyu Park, Raquel Peixoto
Date:
08-10 May 2023
Venue:
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Website:
https://cemse.kaust.edu.sa/robotokaust
Organization team and volunteers:
Mohamad T. Shahab, Renzo Caballero, Angelica Coronado Preciado, Kuat Telegenov, Mohammed Aldosari, Katja Gorenflot, Jumana Alashi, Hanouf Al-Hattan, Rehab Ashri, Marta Golem, Adeel Akhtar, Jun Chen, Abdullah Alharthi, Altayeb-Moh'd A. Al-Shedayfat, Amin Almozel, Nawaf Alotaibi, Shatha Alzahrani, Lucas Câmara Dantas Bezerra, Salman Ghori, Arman Ibrayeva, Anton Kim, Bilal Maassarani, Obadah Wali, Joanna M. Ogieglo, Norah Alghamdi
The KAUST Robotics, Intelligent Systems, and Control (RISC) Lab:
https://cemse.kaust.edu.sa/risclab