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"Underwater operations"
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The Monitor : the iron warship that changed the world
Discusses the Monitor and the Virginia, ironclad warships that confronted each other at the Civil War battle at Hampton Roads, Virginia, detailing what became of the ships after the battle and how the sunken Monitor was later investigated by scientists.
Book
Reconfigurable Transparent Variable‐Stiffness Soft Robot for Underwater Operations
In the realm of underwater exploration and operations, soft robots exhibit considerable application potential due to their capacity for agile and complex deformations as well as their inherent compliance. These characteristics grant them excellent environmental adaptability and reduce damage to delicate samples and organisms. Nonetheless, existing underwater soft robots are primarily designed to mimic the movements of marine organisms or for specific functions, and little attention is paid to the camouflage ability. To address these challenges, in this study, a reconfigurable transparent soft robot with variable stiffness for underwater operations is presented. The design and fabrication methodology of the robot module is presented, followed by the kinematic analysis and stiffness characterization. Leveraging the proposed robot module, a soft manipulator and a soft gripper are designed for underwater operations. The soft manipulator excels in underwater pipeline detection and obstacle avoidance, while the soft gripper showcases considerable load‐bearing capacity (about 71 times its weight), making it suitable for tasks such as retrieving aquatic biological samples or garbage fishing. The proposed reconfigurable soft robot demonstrates robust camouflage capabilities, high environmental adaptability, and notable versatility, suggesting potential solutions to existing challenges in the field of underwater exploration. In this work, a reconfigurable transparent soft robot with variable stiffness capability for underwater operations is presented. Detailed design and fabrication methodology, kinematic analysis, and stiffness characterization of the robot are provided. Furthermore, a soft manipulator and a soft gripper are designed respectively for underwater exploration and grasping to demonstrate its potential for underwater operations.
Journal Article
Civil War sub : the mystery of the Hunley
Recounts events surrounding the mysterious sinking of the Confederate submarine, the H.L. Hunley, and its recent recovery from deep in the waters off the coast of South Carolina.
Book
A Control Architecture for Developing Reactive Hybrid Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles
This article introduces a control architecture designed for the development of Hybrid Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles. The term ”Hybrid” characterizes Remotely Operated systems capable of autonomously executing specific operations. The presented architecture maintains teleoperation capabilities while enabling two fully autonomous applications. The approach emphasizes the implementation of reactive navigation by exclusively utilizing data from a Mechanical Scanned Imaging Sonar for control decisions. This mandates the control system to solely react to data derived from the vehicle’s environment, without considering other positioning information or state estimation. The study involves transforming a small-scale commercial Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle into a hybrid system without structural modifications, and details the development of an intermediate Operational Control Layer responsible for sensor data processing and task execution control. Two practical applications, inspired by tasks common in natural or open-water aquaculture farms, are explored: one for conducting transects, facilitating monitoring and maintenance operations, and another for navigating toward an object for inspection purposes. Experimental results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the authors’ hypotheses. This approach expands the potential applications of underwater vehicles and facilitates the development of Hybrid Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles, enabling the execution of autonomous reactive tasks.
Journal Article
Development and Field Testing of a Smart Support System for ROV Operators
The article considers the issues of development of a smart system for supporting activities of ROV operators and its practical implementation for the efficient operation a ROV Comanche 18 that is based on the R/V Akademik M.A. Lavrentiev. The system uses algorithms that provide coordinated movements of the ROV and its depressor unit. These algorithms are designed for ROVs to make synchronous, accurate, and accident-free movements along long-distance routes even when launched from a support vessel without dynamic positioning (DP). For this, the operator receives real-time visual recommendations and warnings generated on the basis of the expert evaluation of information coming from various sensors and positioning systems. The ability to plan routes of the ROV and its mothership, inputting target points, saving maps, tracks, and locations of the detected underwater objects are also implemented in the designed system. The article presents the results of successful tests carried out during a deep-sea research expedition of the A.V. Zhirmunsky National Scientific Center of Marine Biology FEB RAS in the Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean. The created smart support system for ROV operators significantly extends the range of capabilities of ROVs performing many unique underwater operations, while significantly reducing their operating time.
Journal Article
A Survey of Target Detection and Recognition Methods in Underwater Turbid Areas
Based on analysis of state-of-the-art research investigating target detection and recognition in turbid waters, and aiming to solve the problems encountered during target detection and the unique influences of turbidity areas, in this review, the main problem is divided into two areas: image degradation caused by the unique conditions of turbid water, and target recognition. Existing target recognition methods are divided into three modules: target detection based on deep learning methods, underwater image restoration and enhancement approaches, and underwater image processing methods based on polarization imaging technology and scattering. The relevant research results are analyzed in detail, and methods regarding image processing, target detection, and recognition in turbid water, and relevant datasets are summarized. The main scenarios in which underwater target detection and recognition technology are applied are listed, and the key problems that exist in the current technology are identified. Solutions and development directions are discussed. This work provides a reference for engineering tasks in underwater turbid areas and an outlook on the development of underwater intelligent sensing technology in the future.
Journal Article
Experimental study of underwater operation scene with target perception framework
This paper presents a target perception framework aimed at enhancing diver safety and facilitating underwater operations by extracting critical information from underwater scenes. The framework employs a layered processing approach, which encompasses water column imaging, constant false alarm rate detection, and local feature analysis. To simulate the diver's underwater environment, we conducted experiments with three distinct fields of view: fixed down-looking, fixed front-looking, and mobile side-looking perspectives. Our experimental findings demonstrate the framework's ability to accurately differentiate between false targets, stationary targets, and moving targets within the underwater scenes, as well as to capture the motion trajectories of dynamic targets. Furthermore, the application of 3D reconstruction techniques to underwater scene data enables the generation of approximate stereoscopic representations of divers and bubble groups.
Journal Article
A Method for Supervisory Control of Manipulator of Underwater Vehicle
A novel method for supervisory control of multilink manipulators mounted on underwater vehicles is considered. This method is designed to significantly increase the level of automation of manipulative operations, by the building of motion trajectories for a manipulator working tool along the surfaces of work objects on the basis of target indications given by the operator. This is achieved as follows: The operator targets the camera (with changeable spatial orientation of optical axis) mounted on the vehicle at the work object, and uses it to set one or more working point on the selected object. The geometric shape of the object in the work area is determined using clouds of points obtained from the technical vision system. Depending on the manipulative task set, the spatial motion trajectories and the orientation of the manipulator working tool are automatically set using the spatial coordinates of these points lying on the work object surfaces. The designed method was implemented in the C++ programming language. A graphical interface has also been created that provides rapid testing of the accuracy of overlaying the planned trajectories on the mathematically described surface of a work object. Supervisory control of an underwater manipulator was successfully simulated in the V-REP environment.
Journal Article
Power efficient formation configuration for centralized leader-follower AUVs control
Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have rapidly developed in the last few decades due to their autonomous properties in the investigation of an underwater environment. The goal of this paper is to develop a power efficient formation control for the cooperative motion of AUVs with a support vessel as a leader. In this paper, a kinematic algorithm for the joint motion of an AUV with a support vessel was developed and that algorithm was expanded for the formation of AUVs. The AUV yaw, surge and sway control loops were designed for that purpose. The complexing navigation system structure for the AUV was also developed. Simulation results demonstrated efficiency of the proposed kinematic algorithm for the joint motion of AUVs. Also, influence of lateral ocean current was considered. After development of the centralized leader–follower formation control for the group of AUVs with a support vessel as a leader, we optimized a formation configuration in terms of power efficiency. Drag forces caused by AUV motion in the water can significantly influence power consumption. We investigated the relationship between the AUV's formation configuration, underwater coverage efficiency, communication quality and power consumption. As a result of research, we proposed a power efficient formation configuration for typical underwater operations. As a result, the effect of the AUV formation configuration on the power consumption was investigated and a trade-off solution for the optimal AUV positions in formation with minimal energy consumption, high coverage efficiency and small communication power consumption was derived.
Journal Article
Environmental Regulations and Technological Change in the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry
Technological progress can play a key role in raising standards of living while improving environmental quality. Well-designed environmental regulations encourage innovation, while poorly designed regulations can inhibit progress. The Porter hypothesis goes further to suggest that tougher environmental regulations could spur innovation, leading to increased productivity of market outputs. We apply frontier production analysis to measure various components of total factor productivity within a joint production model, which considers both market and environmental outputs. We test the causality between technological innovation and environmental regulation and find support for a recast version of the Porter hypothesis. (JEL O38, L71)
Journal Article