Grup de Sistemes, Robòtica i Visió
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[ RESEARCH LINES ]

ROBOT VISION           Back to header

                                  VISUAL INSPECTION AND MAINTENANCE OF UNDERWATER INSTALLATIONS

  • PROJECT FOCUS : Visual Inspection of underwater installations such as power cables, oil and gas pipes, sewers,etc. by means of an autonomous Undewater Vehicle.

  • MORE INFORMATION :Nowadays, the surveillance and inspection of underwater installations, such as power and telecommunication cables and pipelines, is carried out by trained operators who, from the surface, control a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) with cameras mounted over it. This is a tedious, time-consuming and expensive task, prone to errors mainly because of loss of attention or fatigue of the operator and also due to the typical low quality of seabed images. In this work, the development of a vision system guiding an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) able to detect and track automatically an underwater power cable laid on the seabed has been the main concern.

  • PEOPLE: Alberto ORTIZ, Javier ANTICH, Gabriel OLIVER, Francesc BONIN
 cabletraking        cabletraking
                                                       REACTIVE QUALITATIVE VISUAL NAVIGATION

  • PROJECT FOCUS Robotic visual navigation in general indoor and outdoor environments with obstacle avoidance and a special emphasis in reactive control architectures.

  • PEOPLE: Francesc BONIN, Alberto ORTIZ,Gabriel OLIVER

COMPUTER VISION           Back to header

                                                               PHYSICS-BASED VISION ALGORITHMS

  • PROJECT FOCUS : Development of vision algorithms based on the physical laws of image formation. In this way, the image formation process is taken into account and optical effects such as shading, shadows, specularities, inter-reflections, etc. can be discounted/tolerated by the algorithm implementing the vision task. Main results of this research work include an edge detection algorithm (C3E), two segmentation algorithms (IS2R, C3S), a set of methods for estimating the lighting parameters and an algorithm for CCD-based radiometric camera calibration and intensity uncertainty estimation (R2CIU).

  • MORE INFORMATION :IS2R segments an image by (partially) reconstructing the shape of the scene. As a result, at the end of the process the segmentation and a description of the scene shape are available. Unfortunately, the image formation model is limited by the shape reconstruction requirement of the algorithm, and only ambient illlumination and body reflection are allowed. C3 E and C3S are the result of a study about how colour channels are coupled in uniform reflectance image areas and achieve more ambituous segmentations. Both look for image pixels where the coupling is lost because of a reflectance transition arising there, leading to an edge map (C3E) from which a segmentation can be then obtained (C3S). All three algorithms make use of intensity uncertaintes estimated by R2CIU to find reflectance transitions in an adaptive way with respect to image noise.

  • PEOPLE: Alberto ORTIZ, Gabriel OLIVER
 Vision algorithms        Vision based algorithms

                                                                 GEOMETRIC CAMERA CALIBRATION

  • PROJECT FOCUS : New methods for geometric camera calibration

  • PEOPLE: Yolanda GONZALEZ

MOBILE ROBOT NAVIGATION           Back to header

                          LOCALIZATION AND MAPPING IN LARGE ENVIRONMENTS USING ULTRASONIC SENSORS

  • PROJECT FOCUS : Localization and map building by means of a mobile robot carrying ultrasonic sensors. Part of the research also focuses on navigation strategies, as they are related to localization and mapping. Main results of this research are the ATHRAIA control architecture and the SEFIROT simulator.

  • MORE INFORMATION :ATHRAIA (Advanced Three-layer Hybrid Robot Architecture for Intelligent Autonomy ) is a hybrid three-layer SLAM oriented robot control architecture organized in the three standard layers (Planning, Coordination and Behavior) and one World Modeller. It is able to guide a mobile robot safely through the environment, planning the paths to accomplish the mission, while building both topological and metric maps and correcting the errors in the robot position estimation.These tasks are performed without previous information about the environment or the robot position. SEFIRoT (Simulation Environment For Intelligent Robot Testing) is a graphical simulation environment for mobile robot and control architecture testing. Through this tool the user can change the simulation parameters easily, even during the simulation, and to see results through graphical items at any moment. The information to be displayed can be selected through the GUI, being the user able to concentrate on specific aspects of the simulation.

  • PEOPLE: Toni BURGUERA, Yolanda GONZALEZ, Gabriel OLIVER
 Sefirot Simulator        Athraia schema
             NAVIGATION AND OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE IN TROUBLESOME SCENARIOS USING ULTRASONIC SENSORS

  • PROJECT FOCUS : Development of navigation strategies allowing a robot to navigate safely avoiding obstacles in unstructured and dynamic environments. Consequently, a special emphasis is put on architecture reactivity, and, thus, on control architectures requiring minimum amounts of computation and memory storage. Main results of this research are the T 2 navigation strategies and the NemoCAT simulator.

  • MORE INFORMATION :By means of the application of the Traversability and Tenacity principles, T2 strategies solve the well-known local minima problem of potential-field-based control methods. On the basis of these two principles, a new family of geometric algorithms for sensor- based motion planning has been proposed: random-T2 , bug-T2 , and connectivity-T2

    NEMOCAT (Navigational Environment MOdeller, Control and Architecture Tester) is a 3D object-oriented simulator developed to validate and tune reactive and hybrid AUVs control architectures based on schema theory and potential fields

  • PEOPLE: Javier ANTICH, Alberto ORTIZ
    •
 NemoCat Simulator        T2 Arquitecture Schema

UNDERWATER ROBOTICS Back to header

                                                                                         RAO

  • PROJECT FOCUS : Development of a cheap autonomous underwater robot for testing purposes..

  • MORE INFORMATION :This vehicle has been conceived to be a testing bench for the development of hardware and software related with underwater robotics. Two basic principles have guided its design and development process: low-cost and modularity. The vehicle is mainly constructed with components which are either standard or which can easily be adapted to the desired purpose. The hull has been made of PVC pipe and the maneuverability is made possible thanks to four DC sealed motors, two of them placed as longitudinal thrusters. The ballast has been adjusted to give the whole structure slight positive buoyancy. Stability in roll movement is achieved placing the ballast in the lowest place and by two horizontal fins. Vertical thrusters or combining pitch and longitudinal thrust make the vehicle immerse. Bow and stern parts of the hull, where vertical thrusters are placed, are floodable. Two dry compartments occupy the central zone.

  • PEOPLE: Gabriel OLIVER, Alberto ORTIZ
 RAO        RAO UNDER THE WATER
                                                                                          RAO II

  • PROJECT FOCUS : Development of an autonomous underwater robot for inspection and maintenance of underwater installations such as power cables, oil and gas pipelines, sewers, etc.

  • MORE INFORMATION :This work addresses the development of an Underwater Autonomous Vehicle (AUV) taking as a basis the hull of a SeaLion Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) together with its propulsion system. The new vehicle incorporates a battery-based power subsystem, a re-designed low-power LED-based illumination subsystem, and new computing resources based on PC-104 Pentium boards. Sensors such as a Tritech Imaging Sonar, an RDI Doppler Velocity Logger (DVL) and a Firewire camera constitute part of its sensorial equipment.

  • PEOPLE: Gabriel OLIVER, Gines VALVERDE, Alberto ORTIZ, Francesc BONIN
RAO-II electronics   RAO-II
 RAO-II navigating (I)      RAO-II navigating (II)

COOPERATIVE ROBOTICS           Back to header

                                                  TASK ALLOCATION METHODS FOR MULTI-ROBOT SYSTEMS

  • PROJECT FOCUS : Design of new methods of task allocation for multi-robot systems.

  • MORE INFORMATION :It is well known that multi-robot systems can provide some advantages over single robots: robustness, flexibility and efficiency among others. To benefit from these potential aspects the robots must cooperate to carry out a common mission. Among typical problems for multi-robot systems, we centre our work on task allocation aspects, that is, selecting the best robots to carry out different tasks. When forming task-groups the number of robots has an important impact on the system performance, due, for example, to the interference effect, which is the result of competition for the shared space. Therefore, a good task allocation mechanism must decide on the best number of robots needed to carry out each task, provided priorities and deadlines will be taken into account. The methods we are working on are mainly inspired on auction and threshold mechanisms.Some of the topics we work on are: teams formation, leader to leader negotiation, heterogeneous teams formation, and deadlines influence, physical interference impact modelling.To test the developed methods we have some facilities in our lab, which include, a special purpose simulator (RoboCoT) and a five Pioneer 3DX team.

  • PEOPLE: Jose GUERRERO, Gabriel OLIVER
 Simulation of a multirobot environment        Pioneers

[ FUNDING ]          

Inspecció automàtica d’entorns submarins per mitjà d’una flota d’agents submergibles
Automatic inspection of subsea media using an underwater agents fleet
  • Funding source: Govern Balear
  • Period: Jan/98 - Dec/99
  • Participants: SRV (UIB)
  • Responsible: Gabriel Oliver Codina
  • Other research groups involved: -

Estudio y desarrollo de un vehículo autónomo submarino
MAR99-1062-C03-03
Design and development of an autonomous underwater vehicle
  • Funding source: CICYT
  • Period: Jan/00 - Dec/01
  • Participants: SRV (UIB)
  • Responsible: Gabriel Oliver Codina (UIB subproject)
  • Other research groups involved: VICOROB (UdG), - (UPC)

Plataformas de experimentación en robótica submarina
DPI2001-2311-C03-02
Experimental platforms in underwater robotics
  • Funding source: CICYT
  • Period: Jan/02 - Dec/04
  • Participants: SRV (UIB)
  • Responsible: Gabriel Oliver Codina (UIB subproject)
  • Other research centers involved: VICOROB (UdG), - (UPC)

CORMORAN Desarrollo de una plataforma de observación oceánica móvil y autónoma
REN 2003-07787-C02-01
CORMORAN : Development of a mobile and autonomous observation ocean platform
  • Funding source: CICYT
  • Period: Jan/2003 - Dec/2006
  • Participants: GOIFIS (IMEDEA-CSIC), SRV (UIB)
  • Responsible: Alberto Álvarez Díaz (UIB subproject)
  • Other research centers involved: UTM (UPC)

Red Temática para la cooperación e investigación en Automática y Robótica para la Industria Marítima
DPI 2004-22181-E (AUTOMAR)
Cooperation and research network for Sea Industry Robotics and Automation
  • Funding source: CICYT
  • Period: Ago/2006 - Ago/2007
  • Participants: - (UCM), - (UNED), - (UC), - (UDC), - (IAI-CSIC), - (UPM), - (UPC), VICOROB (UdG), SRV (UIB), - (UCA), - (CEHIPAR)
  • Responsible: Jesus Maria de La Cruz Garcia
  • Other research groups involved: -

Guiado y Posicionado de un AUV para Inspeción de Cables y Emisarios Submarinos
DPI 2005-09001-C03-02 (AIRSUB)
AUV Guide and Positioning for submarine cable inspection
  • Funding source: CICYT
  • Period: Jan/2006 - Dec/2008
  • Participants: SRV (UIB)
  • Responsible: Gabriel Oliver Codina (UIB subproject)
  • Other research groups involved: VICOROB (UdG), - (UPC)

Acoplamiento hidrodinámico Oleaje-Corriente, tasas de dispersión e implicaciones interdisciplinares en la zona costera CTM2006-12072 (COOL)
Wave-Current Hidrodinamic Coupling
  • Funding source: CICYT
  • Period: Jan/2007 - Dec/2009
  • Participants: GOIFIS (IMEDEA-CSIC), SRV(UIB)
  • Responsible: Joaquín Tintoré Subirana
  • Other research groups involved: -

Investigación en automática y robótica para la industria marítima
DPI2006-28345-E (AUTOMAR)
Research in automation and robotics for the maritime industry
  • Funding source: CICYT
  • Period: Ago/2007 - Ago/2008
  • Participants: - (UCM), - (UNED), - (UC), - (UDC), - (IAI-CSIC), - (UPM), - (UPC), VICOROB (UdG), SRV (UIB), - (UCA), - (CEHIPAR)
  • Responsible: Gabriel OIiver Codina
  • Other research groups involved: -

Red Temática para la cooperación e investigación en Visión por Computador
DPI2006-28347-E (RedVision)
Research in computer vision
  • Funding source: CICYT
  • Period: Ago/2007 - Ago/2008
  • Participants:  - (UPM), - (UMA), - (UPC), - (UNED), - (UAL), - (UMH), SRV (UIB), VICOROB (UdG), - (UNIZAR), CARTIF, - (UVA), - (UCAN), - (UC3M), - (UCLM), - (UNEX), - (UPV), - (UNIOVI), - (URJC), - (UPV), - (UNILEON)
  • Responsible: José Mª Sebastián y Zúñiga
  • Other research groups involved: -

Vision para la Intervención Submarina mediante Vehículos Autónomos
DPI2008-06548-C03-02 (VISUAL)
Vision for submarine intervention using autonomous vehicles
  • Funding source: CICYT
  • Period: Sep/2008 - Sep/2011
  • Participants:  SRV (UIB)
  • Responsible: Gabriel Oliver Codina (UIB subproject)
  • Other research groups involved: RobInLab (UJI), VICOROB (UdG)

Sistema Robótico de Asistencia a Inspecciones Marinas (MINOAS)
SCP8-GA-2009-233715 (call FP7-SST-2008-RTD-1)
MINOAS: Marine Inspection Robotic Assistant System
  • Funding source: EC
  • Period: Jun/2009 - Jun/2012
  • Participants:  SRV (UIB)
  • Responsible: Alberto Ortiz Rodríguez (UIB tasks)
  • Other research groups involved: RINA (-), DFKI (-), CNR-ISSIA (-), GLAFCOS (-), RIGEL (-), HORAMA (-), LLOYDS REGISTER (-), DOLPHIN (-), NEORION (-)

Robots Marinos y Manipulación Diestra para Misiones de Intervención Submarina (TRIDENT)
SCP8-GA-2010-248497 (call FP7-ICT-2009-4)
TRIDENT: Marine Robots and Dexterous Manipulation for Enabling
Autonomous Underwater Multipurpose Intervention Missions
  • Funding source: EC
  • Period: Mar/2010 - Mar/2013
  • Participants:  SRV (UIB)
  • Responsible: Gabriel Oliver Codina (UIB tasks)
  • Other research groups involved: RobInLab (UJI), VICOROB (UdG), ISR (IST), OSL (Heriot-Watt), - (Univ Bologna), ISME (Univ Genova), GRAAL TECH (-)


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