Research Summaries

Back Autonomous USV Navigation in Riverine Environments

Fiscal Year 2014
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Investigator(s) Horner, Douglas P.
Sponsor Office of Naval Research (Navy)
Summary The objective of this research is the continued development of a surface and subsurface sensing, mapping and obstacle avoidance system for unmanned surface vessels to safely operate in riverine environments. This effort will leverage work from prior field experiments and expand upon previous results with a small imaging sonar system, but begin to transition the USV's autonomous navigation system from a sonar with limited range and field of view to an ATLAS long range, wide aperture, mapping sonar. This sensor will enable the USV to more rapidly map riverine bathymetry. It will also set the stage for future research in "intelligent sensing and control" by leveraging the ATLAS "sonar supervisor" software to dynamically reconfigure the sensor for optimal performance in a given environment. Under this effort, NPS will complete the ATLAS system integration on the SeaFox USV and conduct field experiments on the Sacramento River to assess and optimize this sonar's performance from a surface platform.
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Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal