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Talk-04: Nested Autonomy - An Effective Operational Paradigm for Sustained Undersea Observation and Monitoring

Henrik Schmidt, MIT (LAMSS)

The command and control of distributed undersea sensing networks is severely constrained by a bandwidth-limited, latent and intermittent, layered communication infrastructure combining acoustic communication underwater, with RF communication via a surface buoy or dedicated surfacing gateway. Thus, communication will typiccally be restricted to a few hundred bytes every 2-3 minutes, virtually eliminating the possibility of a human operator to effectively adapt the vehicle to the current environmental and operational picture. The network nodes therefore require an autonomy system which is capable of completing the mission, e.g. tracking an environmental feature, without requiring sustained communication connectivity. This in turn requires that the vehicle autonomy is capable of processing sensor data, forecasting the environmental picture, and providing the feedback to the vehicle control, maintaining the track of the feature of interest.

Nested Autonomy is a new command and control paradigm, inherently suited for the layered communication infrastructure provided by the low-bandwidth underwater acoustic communication and the intermittent RF connectivity. Implemented using MOOS-IvP behavior-based, autonomous command and control architecture, it provides the fully integrated sensing, modeling an control that allows each platform to autonomously detect, classify, localize and track an episodic event in the ocean, without depending on any operator command and control. The prosecution of an event, such as the detection and tracking of a sub-sea vulcanic plume or an oceanographic feature, may be initiated by the operators or fully autonomously by an onboard detection capability. The event information collected by each node in the network is reported back to the operators by transmitting an event report, using a dedicated command and control language. Collaborative processing and control is exploited when the communication channel allows, e.g. for collaborative tracking of a coastal front, or the tracking of marine mammals.

Categories:

  • Autonomy
  • Multi-Vehicle Autonomy
  • MOOS-IvP
  • ASW
  • UUVs
  • Academia