Related papers: Ariel Explores: Vision-based underwater exploratio…
This paper presents a learned model to predict the robot-centric velocity of an underwater robot through dynamics-aware proprioception. The method exploits a recurrent neural network using as inputs inertial cues, motor commands, and…
Visually-guided underwater robots are deployed alongside human divers for cooperative exploration, inspection, and monitoring tasks in numerous shallow-water and coastal-water applications. The most essential capability of such companion…
This paper addresses the robustness problem of visual-inertial state estimation for underwater operations. Underwater robots operating in a challenging environment are required to know their pose at all times. All vision-based localization…
Today ship hull inspection including the examination of the external coating, detection of defects, and other types of external degradation such as corrosion and marine growth is conducted underwater by means of Remotely Operated Vehicles…
The ocean is warming and acidifying, increasing the risk of mass mortality events for temperature-sensitive shellfish such as oysters. This motivates the development of long-term monitoring systems. However, human labor is costly and…
Autonomous navigation is essential for steel bridge inspection robot to monitor and maintain the working condition of steel bridges. Majority of existing robotic solutions requires human support to navigate the robot doing the inspection.…
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) demand robust spatial perception capabilities, including Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), to support both remote and autonomous tasks. Vision-based…
To address the challenges of localization drift and perception-planning coupling in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating in open-top scenarios (e.g., collapsed buildings, roofless mazes), this paper proposes EAROL, a novel framework…
We present Nav2Goal, a data-efficient and end-to-end learning method for goal-conditioned visual navigation. Our technique is used to train a navigation policy that enables a robot to navigate close to sparse geographic waypoints provided…
Traditional sea exploration faces significant challenges due to extreme conditions, limited visibility, and high costs, resulting in vast unexplored ocean regions. This paper presents an innovative AI-powered Autonomous Underwater Vehicle…
This paper addresses the challenge of active perception within autonomous navigation in complex, unknown environments. Revisiting the foundational principles of active perception, we introduce an end-to-end reinforcement learning framework…
In this article, a tutorial introduction to visual-inertial navigation(VIN) is presented. Visual and inertial perception are two complementary sensing modalities. Cameras and inertial measurement units (IMU) are the corresponding sensors…
Research on coastal regions traditionally involves methods like manual sampling, monitoring buoys, and remote sensing, but these methods face challenges in spatially and temporally diverse regions of interest. Autonomous surface vehicles…
Wheeled-legged robots combine the efficiency of wheels with the obstacle negotiation of legs, yet many state-of-the-art systems rely on costly actuators and sensors, and fall-recovery is seldom integrated, especially for wheeled-legged…
Underwater marine inspections for ship hull or marine debris, etc. are one of the vital measures carried out to ensure the safety of marine structures and underwater species. This work details the design, development and qualification of a…
Oyster reefs are critical ecosystem species that sustain biodiversity, filter water, and protect coastlines, yet they continue to decline globally. Restoring these ecosystems requires regular underwater monitoring to assess reef health, a…
A plethora of state estimation techniques have appeared in the last decade using visual data, and more recently with added inertial data. Datasets typically used for evaluation include indoor and urban environments, where supporting videos…
Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, was adopted as the fourth medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme to be launched in 2029. During its 4-year mission, Ariel will study what exoplanets are…
This paper presents a solution for the autonomous exploration and inspection of Ballast Water Tanks (BWTs) of marine vessels using aerial robots. Ballast tank compartments are critical for a vessel's safety and correspond to confined…
Vision-based underwater robots can be useful in inspecting and exploring confined spaces where traditional sensors and preplanned paths cannot be followed. Sensor noise and situational change can cause significant uncertainty in…