Communications of the ACM
Onr Helps Undersea Robots Get the Big Picture
Credit: U.S. Office of Naval Research
New software will give undersea gliders a greater ability to make decisions on their own when surveying large swaths of the oceans.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Southern California pursued the basic research to help improve the autonomous system capabilities of the U.S. Navy.
As part of the Office of Naval Research's Adaptive Networks for Threat and Intrusion Detection or Termination program and a related university program called Smart Adaptive Reliable Teams for Persistent Surveillance, scientists have developed a persistent surveillance theory that provides a framework for decision-making software that maximizes a robot's collection of information over a given area and provides some guarantees on performance in dynamic environments.
The team has developed algorithms that incorporate both the user's sensing priorities and environmental factors, such as ocean currents, into a computer model to help undersea robots conduct surveys and mapping missions more efficiently. The Navy plans to deploy squadrons of air, surface, and undersea robotic vehicles later this decade.
From Office of Naval Research
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