François Chung, Ph.D.

Tag: autonomous underwater vehicle

CCIA 2006 – Conference

CCIA 2006 – Conference proceeding

Publication

Emili Hernàndez, Pere Ridao, Marc Carreras, David Ribas, Narcís Palomeras, Andres El-Fakdi, François Chung, Toni Almohaya, Xavier Ribas, Guillermo García de Marina, Joan Massich, Natàlia Hurtós; ICTINEU AUV, un robot per a competir; CCIA 2006: Congrés Català d'Intel.ligència Artificial, Associació Catalana d’Intel.ligència Artificial (ACIA), Perpignan, 2006.

Abstract

SAUC-E (Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe) és la primera competició en robòtica submarina per a estudiants que es dur a terme a Europa. Inspirada en les competicions americanes, per a competir en el SAUC-E, un grup d'estudiants han de dissenyar i construir un robot capaç de dur a terme una missió predefinida per l'organització, de forma totalment autònoma. Un grup d'estudiants i professors de la Universitat de Girona (UdG) hem decidit afrontar aquest repte construint el robot ICTINEU AUV. Aquest robot aprofitarà eines de maquinari i programari desenvolupades els darrers anys en el nostre laboratori. Aquest article presenta el robot que estem desenvolupant i presenta resultats preliminars (simulació en temps real) de la seva arquitectura de control, mostrant la viabilitat de la proposta.

Keyword

  • robòtica

References

Publication

Related articles

SAUC-E competition (UdG project)
UdG 2006 (technical report)

Learn more

SAUC-E – Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge – Europe
ACIA – Associació Catalana d’Intel·ligència Artificial

SAUC-E competition

SAUC-E competition

UdG project @Girona, Spain (2006). Inspired by the American competitions, SAUC-E (Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe) is the first underwater robotics competition for students to be held in Europe. To be eligible, a group of students must design and build a robot capable of carrying out, autonomously, a mission predefined by the organization in the underwater environment.

The objective of this competition is to challenge the next generation of engineers to design and build an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), and then to perform realistic missions in the underwater environment. The event is designed to encourage young engineers and scientists to think about underwater technology and its future possibilities, as well as to foster interest in innovation and technology, and to encourage careers in this field.

Eight teams are involved in the competition:

  • Heriot-Watt University (UK);
  • International University Bremen (DE);
  • UdG - Universitat de Girona (ES);
  • University of Bath (UK);
  • University of Glasgow (UK);
  • University of Leicester (UK);
  • University of Southampton (UK).

The VICOROB-UdG team is a multidisciplinary team of students and professors from the Computer Vision and Robotics Group (ViCOROB) of the Universitat de Girona (UdG). Its main objective is to participate in the SAUC-E 2006 competition by building the ICTINEU AUV robot. This robot leverages hardware and software tools developed over the last years in the group's laboratories (e.g. real-time simulation and control architecture). In August 2006, the VICOROB-UdG team won the SAUC-E 2006 competition held in London (UK).

Within the VICOROB-UdG team, my work consists in developing a program for the real-time tracking of underwater objects. This program, which involves the use of image processing algorithms, aims at ensuring the robot's ability to complete two specific tasks during the mission. The first task consists in navigating towards a mid-water buoy and impacting it, the second consists in navigating towards a cross laying on the pool bottom and throwing a marker towards the center of the cross.

References

Related articles

CCIA 2006 (conference proceeding)
UdG 2006 (technical report)

Learn more

SAUC-E – Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge – Europe
VICOROB-UdG team
ViCOROB – Visió per Computador i Robòtica
UdG – Universitat de Girona

UdG 2006 - Technical report

UdG 2006 – Technical report

Publication

David Ribas, Narcís Palomeras, Xavier Ribas, Guillermo García de Marina, Emili Hernàndez, François Chung, Natàlia Hurtós, Joan Massich, Toni Almohaya, Josep Vila; ICTINEU AUV takes the challenge; Universitat de Girona (UdG), Girona, 2006.

Abstract

Within 1857-1868, Narcis Monturiol developed the first Spanish submarine. Almost one hundred and fifty years later, a pioneer team of students of the University of Girona (UdG) decided to design and develop an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) to face the Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge – Europe (SAUC-E). Our robot, called ICTINEU AUV, is the result of a multidisciplinary project involving undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. students of industrial engineering and computer science. The prototype has evolved from the initial Computer Aided Design (CAD) model to become an operative Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) in the short period of seven months. The open frame and modular design principles, together with the compatibility with other robots previously developed at the lab, have been the main design philosophy. Hence, at the robot core, two networked computers give access to a wide set of sensors and actuators. The Gentoo/Linux distribution, with a 2.6 pre-emptive kernel, has been chosen as the onboard operating system. The real-time POSIX, together with the ACE/TAO CORBA-RT ORB, have been extensively used to develop the control architecture as a set of distributed objects with soft real time capabilities. Common software engineering practises have been applied to ensure software reliability including Unified Modelling Language (UML) design, extensive documentation using DoxyGen and the use of a Code Version Server (CVS) to handle the sharing of multiple code versions. Finally, in order to reduce the development time, concurrent engineering techniques based on Hardware In the Loop (HIL) simulation have been applied to overlap the hardware and software design and development.

References

Publication

Related articles

SAUC-E competition (UdG project)
CCIA 2006 (conference proceeding)

Learn more

SAUC-E – Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge – Europe
UdG – Universitat de Girona