Maritime RobotX Challenge System Selection

Maritime RobotX Challenge System Selection

Over the past decades before civilization, people used the sea and deep water for exploration, food, trade, and migration. During such a period, there existed several challenges as the moving vessels were dangerous, time-consuming, and expensive to develop. It was hard for people to depict changes in the weather hence leading to challenges with their sailing. The advancement in technology led to the development of unmanned service vessels that could overcome past challenges. Countries such as Australia, Japan, Singapore, the United States, and South Korea prepared a team of experts who would participate in a competition to develop systems that could break the possibilities (“RobotX The Bigger Picture,” 2018). However, engaging in competition, rules are set for the participating team to follow. For example, according to the 2018 Maritime Robotx Challenge, one of the regulations is team eligibility and requirements. Qualification means that student teams from any part of the world can participate in the event by applying by filling a registration form. Conditions are where teams may include students, industrial partners, faulty, or government partners.

RobotX refers to an international robotic vehicle competition that aims at improving the field of autonomous vehicle technology. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) organizes the sport through the funding of the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The teams participating in RobotX Maritime Challenge uses the autonomous surface vehicle platforms and sensors in developing a boat that can perform decision-making based on mapping, navigation, and objective completion through a remote control or with no human intervention (Coller et al., 2018). Moreover, the system to achieve full autonomous movement, it must achieve object detection and recovery, obstacle avoidance, and signal recognition..

The task descriptions and specifications of the 2018 Maritime RobotX Challenge ensures the community of innovators achieves the goal of providing substantive contributions to the field of uncrewed, autonomous, and multi-domain vehicles. Such development is possible through the creation of a platform and mechanism for utilization to be members of the independent community to foster new collaborations and connections to increase their inventiveness and proficiency and develop their urge for robotics and maritime domain (Coller et al., 2018). The tasks set for completion will require the team to show how they can manage to achieve the development of maritime applications, search and rescue systems, shipping security, environmental monitoring, fishery management, and marine science. One of the tasks to complete based on the 2018 challenge is an obstacle avoidance system. This challenge entails the placement of obstacles within an area of 40m * 40m. The Autonomous Maritime System (AMS) will traverse the city without hitting an obstruction. The AMS will manage such tasks by fitting it with sensors designed based on artificial intelligence to guide on the best route to follow to avoid the challenges.

The Autonomous vessels based platform which will be used by the scout is the WAM-V, which is an inflated ship designed with four skis to support the load tray. Which is more important in as much as the component selection to complete the mission is a propulsion system, sensor, and the batteries as well as the Autonomous controller to interpret and navigate sensor information. Also, there will be other standard components like GPS. The GPS will help in the communication sector in sending the heartbeat and the work reporting messages. Besides, the GPS system also will play as a receiver antenna to give access to the control command. The beginning work, which is required to qualify the GPS to operate is the control and navigation. It all starts by explaining the GPS as a waypoint and needs a vision system to realize the green and the red buoys, which helps in identifying the stated and the end gates. Combining the effort of the GPS and the INS or IMU sensor, the vessels will be able to navigate point to point.

References

RobotX The Bigger Picture. (2014). [Video]. Retrieved 21 March 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlZXIeEgLmQ.

Coller, J. A., Sypniewski, M. J., Taylordean, S. B., Goodrum, C. J., & Singer, D. J. The Design of an Autonomous Surface Vehicle for the 2018 Maritime RobotX Challenge.