Automated environmental monitoring in marine environments is currently carried out either by small-scale robotic systems, composed of one or few robots, or static sensor networks. In this paper, we propose the use of swarm robotics systems to carry out marine environmental monitoring missions. In swarm robotics systems, each individual unit is relatively simple and inexpensive. The robots rely on decentralized control and local communication, allowing the swarm to scale to hundreds of units and to cover large areas. We study the application of a swarm of aquatic robots to environmental monitoring tasks. In the first part of the study, we synthesize swarm control for a temperature monitoring mission and validate our results with a real swarm robotics system. Then, we conduct a simulation-based evaluation of the robots' performance over large areas and with large swarm sizes, and demonstrate the swarm's robustness to faults. Our results show that swarm robotics systems are suited for environmental monitoring tasks by efficiently covering a target area, allowing for redundancy in the data collection process, and tolerating individual robot faults.

The sea as a very extensive area, renders difficult a pre-emptive and long-lasting search for shipwreck survivors. The operational cost for deploying manned teams with such proactive strategy is high and, thus, these teams are only reactively deployed when a disaster like a shipwreck has been communicated. To reduce the involved financial costs, unmanned robotic systems could be used instead as background surveillance teams patrolling the seas. In this sense, a robotic team for search and rescue (SAR) operations at sea is presented in this work. Composed of an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) piggybacking a watertight Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with vertical take-off and landing capabilities, the proposed cooperative system is capable of search, track and provide basic life support while reporting the position of human survivors to better prepared manned rescue teams. The USV provides long-range transportation of the UAV and basic survival kits for victims. The UAV assures an augmented perception of the environment due to its high vantage point.

The SEAGULL project aims at the development of intelligent systems to support maritime situation awareness based on unmanned aerial vehicles. It proposes to create an intelligent maritime surveillance system by equipping unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with different types of optical sensors. Optical sensors such as cameras (visible, infrared, multi and hyper spectral) can contribute significantly to the generation of situational awareness of maritime events such as (i) detection and georeferencing of oil spills or hazardous and noxious substances; (ii) tracking systems (e.g. vessels, shipwrecked, lifeboat, debris, etc.); (iii) recognizing behavioral patterns (e.g. vessels rendezvous, high-speed vessels, atypical patterns of navigation, etc.); and (iv) monitoring parameters and indicators of good environmental status. On-board transponders will be used for collision detection and avoidance mechanism (sense and avoid). This paper describes the core of the research and development work done during the first 2 years of the project with particular emphasis on the following topics: system architecture, automatic detection of sea vessels by vision sensors and custom designed computer vision algorithms; and a sense and avoid system developed in the theoretical framework of zero-sum differential games.

The growing interest in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) led to the boom development of these systems. Nowadays, these systems can be introduced in almost any task, either for civilian or military purposes. In fact, there are several communication protocols for these vehicles, in order to control the vehicle and to enable the exchange of information between the UAV and Ground Control Station (GCS). Interoperability among systems is a key factor in any military operation. This paper describes a system that creates a translation between two communication protocols for UAVs and GCSs: Micro Aerial Vehicle Communication Protocol (MAVLink) and STANAG 4586. MAVLink is a communication protocol used by several UAVs, whereas STANAG 4485 is a complete standard that was created in order to have NATO interoperability between these vehicles. The bridge will be connected to a Raspberry Pi computer, in order to be easily introduced in any UAV. This project will allow STANAG 4586 compliant GCSs to operate with MAVLink protocol UAVs, in order to achieve interoperability between NATO members' UAVs.

It is proposed a navigation system based on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) onboard camera that can land on a moving naval platform. It is considered that, besides the usual sensors, the aircraft is equipped with a RGB digital camera capable of detecting markers located on the ship's deck. The proposed method uses a framework based on a Kalman filter (KF) and an efficient perspective-n-point (EPnP) approach to estimate the position, attitude and velocity of the target (landing system). This information is combined and used to generate a landing trajectory. The algorithm is suitable for real time implementation in standard workstations because of the low computational time required.

Background: Wayfinding has been adopted in several intense evacuation and navigation simulations; however, the use of biometric measurements for characterizing physiological outcomes has been somewhat overlooked and applied only under limited laboratory conditions. Methods: Twenty-four participants took part in a virtual reality (VR) experiment using a wayfinding installation with the Oculus Rift S head-mounted display (HMD). They were immersed in a simulation of a burning underground parking lot and tasked to navigate to the exit. The purpose of this research was to investigate the high-level effect of wayfinding assistive lights on behavioral, physiological, and psychological outcomes. Participants were split into two groups: the control group was exposed to a scene without assistive lights, and the experimental group was exposed to the same scene with assistive lights. Results: Results indicate there was no statistically significant difference between the groups in traveled distance, pauses, turns, or game completion time. Curiously, differences between the two groups in heart rate (HR) outcomes were found to be statistically significant, with subjects in the control group displaying an increasing HR trend during simulation. Conclusions: This finding, in accordance with previous studies that have shown the efficacy of landmarks and wayfinding affordances in reducing cognitive demands, suggests that assistive lights might contribute to improved brain wiring connectivity during the game. We discuss these findings in the context of a rich wayfinding affordances literature.