Yuki Sekimori (The University of Tokyo) and Toshihiro Maki (Beacon Associate Editor, The University of Tokyo)
1. Introduction
The Underwater Robot Convention in JAMSTEC 2020 was held at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) on 5-6 December 2020 by NPO Japan Underwater Robot Network [1, 2]. The event aims to establish a forum for participants to exchange technical ideas and build networks through the presentations and the competition of the self-built underwater robots. At the same time, the underwater robot seminar aims to provide an opportunity for them to stipulate the interest and deepen the understanding of underwater robot and underwater technology. Although the event was held mainly online this year [Figure 1], it was a lively event, and we hosted a comparable number of participants to the previous years. It was our first time to hold the event online, but the event was smoothly organized. We earned a valuable experience that would be beneficial for the conventions in the future.
In this year’s convention, we held two divisions of the competition: The General Competition (Free) Division and The Junior Division, and the underwater robot seminar [Table 1]. The Free Division is targeted towards university students and the public, and the contestant teams compete for technical aspects and originality. The Junior Division is targeted towards middle school, high school, and technical college students, and the teams compete for the strategy of picking up submerged cans within a time limit. Some of the contestant teams from the Free Division were given the opportunity to demonstrate their robot in the multipurpose pool at the Yokosuka Headquarters of the JAMSTEC [Figure 2]. The AUV Division was not held this year because the Techno-Ocean 2020 robot competition in October was cancelled due to the COVID-19 infection control measures. This year’s AI Challenge Division was also cancelled for the same reason. Unlike the previous years, we did not provide subsidies to middle school and high school students participating from afar.
As aforementioned, we hosted 212 participants this year, which was comparable to 235 participants last year. The number of contestant teams decreased because the AI Challenge Division was cancelled. However, we expanded the underwater robotics community through hosting new contestant teams from afar, and we reconfirmed the benefits of an online event.
Table 1. Event schedule
Saturday December 5th
10:10
Opening Ceremony
10:30
Underwater Robot Seminar
13:30
Workshop (Free Division)
16:00
Workshop (Junior Division)
Sunday December 6th
10:00
Free Demo (Free Division)
13:00
Demo at JAMSTEC (Free Division), Avatar Demo
15:00
Review Session (Junior Division)
16:00
Awards and Closing Ceremony
2. Free Division
13 teams contested in the Free Division this year compared to 10 teams last year. In the workshop on the first day, each contestant team presented the concept, the features, and the technical aspects of its project, followed by a question-and-answer (Q&A) session. In the demonstration on the second day, each team presented the maneuvering of the robot. The presentation videos are available to the public on the Japan Underwater Robot Network’s YouTube Channel [3]. We saw many biomimicry robots of marine organism such as squids and rays [Figure 3, Figure 4]. As aforementioned, we had active discussions during the Q&A sessions of the workshop and the demonstration. Moreover, 4 contestant teams demonstrated the robots in the multipurpose pool at the Yokosuka Headquarter of the JAMSTEC [Figure 2]. As a COVID-19 infection control measure, we allowed the maximum of 3 members per team to enter the venue.
Table 2. Free Division evaluation criteria
Presentation: 50 points
Points given for the quality of the poster and the workshop presentation.
Evaluated the layout of the poster, technical contents, visibility, diction, understandability, and Q&A of the presentation.
Competition: 50 points
Evaluated the contents of the demonstration comprehensively.
Table 3. Free Division results
Champion
Team Blue (Aichi Institute of Technology) [Figure 3]
Runner-up
Dolphin Creator (No affiliation) [Figure 4]
Second runner-up
Team Green (Aichi Institute of Technology)
3. Junior Division
The Junior Division was held completely online. Unlike the previous years, we could not distribute the design kit this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so we asked the contestant teams to remodel the robot using the kit provided in the previous years. Although the design kits were not distributed, we shared an open-sourced method on how to build the robot. Thus, all the contestant teams were able to present with a physical robot. We set the presentation assignment: “The strategy that you would have implemented if the competition was held in person as usual”, such that the contestant teams without the kit can participate. We ranked the presentations [3] by the level of achievement of the assignment [Table 4], and we awarded the Best Presentation Award and the Special Encouragement Award [Table 5]. We collected the votes from all participants for the Best Presentation Award so that the participants feel inclusive to the event. We received 28 questionnaire responses: 19 of them were mutual evaluation by the Junior Division contestants, and the rest was from the spectators. The Special Encouragement Award provided the new contestant teams with the advantage of the priority to receive the design kit next year. Like the Free Division, in the workshop on the first day, each team presented the project via online, followed by the Q&A session. We had a review session from the lecturers on the second day.
Table 4. Junior Division evaluation criteria
Strategy: 40 points
Evaluated the realizability of the robot based on the structural integrity. Extra points given to the teams without the design kit for the theoretical discussions of the realizability and the partial prototyping.
Mechanical study: 40 points
Evaluated the theoretical study of the maneuvering of the robot under the physical constraints.
Others: 20 points
Evaluated the motivation, teamwork, scheduling, and efforts.
Table 5. Junior Division results
Champion
Shinkai 6.0 (Shibaura Institute of Technology Senior High School) [Figure 5].
Runner-up
Minamata High School, Machinery Section, Engineering Department (Kumamoto Prefecture Minamata High School)
Best Presentation Award
Tokyo Tech High School of Science and Technology, Freshman Volunteers [Figure 6].
Special Encouragement Award
Tokyo Tech High School of Science and Technology, Freshman Volunteers [Figure 6]
and
Sagae Sakurambo (Yamagata Prefectural Sagae Technical High School)
4. Online Seminar
In the morning of the first day, we held an online seminar comprised of 3 lectures. We had about 110 participants, which is more than the number of participants in the previous years. Below are the lecture series:
(1) New breakthrough in the polar science by the unmanned surveying technology. Presented by Prof. Yoshihumi Nogi (National Institute of Polar Research)
(2) Meeting for the promotion of the social implementation of Ocean Avatars. Presented by Dr. Hiroshi Yoshida (JAMSTEC). Live from the Fukushima Robot Testing Field (RTF).
(3) Real-time processing and robotics application of convolutional neural network for image processing. Presented by Mr. Yuichiro Niwa (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency).
This year, we collaborated with “The second meeting for the promotion of the social implementation of Ocean Avatars” held at the Fukushima RTF by linking the two venues via the internet. During the demonstration session in the afternoon of the second day, an underwater robot in the multipurpose pool at the Yokosuka Headquarters of the JAMSTEC was remotely controlled from the Fukushima RTF via the internet. The transmission latency was marginal, and we did not feel like the robot was controlled online. Together, we were able to livestream a smooth maneuvering of the robot.
5. Benefits and challenges of an online convention
The online form was venturous for a convention that includes a competition of physical robots, exchange of technical ideas, and networking. It was a new learning experience for both the participants and the organizers. We outlined some of the key benefits and challenges of hosting an online convention.
One of the benefits was that the participants actively asked questions during the workshops. It seemed like the participants found the online format easier to ask questions. The second benefit was the high degree of completeness. Most of the contestant teams presented a fully functioning robot. This is probably because the teams had to submit the demo video a week before the convention, so they could not improvise. In addition, we were able to host more participants from afar than the previous years.
On the other hand, we encountered some challenges, too. Although we had more questions during the Q&A sessions, it was difficult to establish a platform for interpersonal interactions among the participants. The Q&A sessions were rather formal because all the participants were listening. In an online platform, it was challenging for us to provide an environment for free and casual discussions. Furthermore, the video demo could never be as exciting as the at-the-venue demo because only a limited amount of information was conveyed over a video clip.
6. Conclusion
The Underwater Robot Convention in JAMSTEC 2020 was successful. Overall, we were excited to see well-designed and high-quality robots from many of the contestant teams. In the Free Division, we were able expand the underwater robotics community through hosting contestants from afar. In the Junior Division, we were able to see a strong supportive network of the contestant teams. The contestants overcame many challenges that they faced due to the COVID-19 infection control measures. Under the restrictions due to the COVID-19 infection control measures, we had to hold the event online and postpone the event to December; however, the event was fruitful in various aspects. All the contestants put great effort into creating an ingenious underwater robot while adjusting to the online format. As a master’s student involved in the competition organization, I (Yuki Sekimori) [Figure 7] was able to learn from observing how the executive members communicate effectively and make decisions to prepare for and carry though the event. In addition, I was inspired by many of the innovative underwater robot concepts presented during the convention. I look forward to seeing the contestants continue to innovate and be involved in underwater robotics, possibly working together with them in the future. Regardless of the circumstances, we will continue to promote, encourage, and support students and the public to fulfill one’s intellectual curiosity and to demonstrate ingenuity through the underwater robotics convention.
Acknowledgments
The Underwater Robot Convention in JAMSTEC in 2020 was supported by IEEE/OES Japan Chapter, MTS Japan Section, Techno-Ocean Network, The Japan Society of Naval Architects and Ocean Engineers, JAMSTEC, The Nippon Foundation, Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokosuka City, Tokyo University of Marine Sciences and Technologies, Center for Integrated Underwater Observation Technology at Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo, Fukushima RTF, Aqua Modelers Meeting, and Matsuyama Industry Co., Ltd. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the sponsors for their strong support and cooperation in realizing this competition.
References
[1] Japan Underwater Robot Network (in Japanese). [Online]. Available: http://underwaterrobonet.org/ [2] Underwater Robot Convention in JAMSTEC 2020 (in Japanese). [Online]. Available: http://jam20.underwaterrobonet.org/ [3] Underwater Robot Convention 2020 (in Japanese). Japan Underwater Robot Network YouTube Channel. [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7niPiAIqUjrsPu3okWw2If9ppS44WqED
Suleman Mazhar has been working as a professor in Information & Communication Engineering at Harbin Engineering University (China) since July 2019. He did PhD from Tokyo University (Japan) and postdoctorate from Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA). He had BS-CS from FAST-NUCES (Lahore) and MS from GIK Institute (Pakistan). He is TYSP young scientist fellow (Ministry of Science & Technology China) and have won several research grants from international organizations such as DAAD (Germany), ICIMOD (Nepal), NRPU (Higher Education Commission Pakistan), WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature) Pakistan. His research focus is deep learning and signal processing applications for environmental monitoring, with particular focus on underwater acoustics, and marine mammal conservation. He is a reviewer for professional journals such as Journal of Acoustical Society (America), IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, IEEE Sensors Journal, Applied Acoustics, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
Peng Ren is a full professor with the College of Oceanography and Space Informatics, China University of Petroleum (East China). He is the director of Qingdao International Research Center for Intelligent Forecast and Detection of Oceanic Catastrophes. He received the K. M. Scott Prize from the University of York, the Natural Science award (first rank) from China Institute of Electronics, and the Eduardo Caianiello Best Student Paper Award from 18th International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing as one co-author. He has served as an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.
Mohd Rizal Arshad is a full professor at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Malaysia, where he specializes in ocean robotics technology and intelligent system. He received his B.Eng. in Medical Electronics & Instrumentation and PhD in Electronic Engineering from University of Liverpool, UK in 1994 and 1999, respectively. He completed his MSc. in Electronic Control Engineering from the University of Salford, UK in Dec 1995. He has supervised many postgraduate students and published extensively in local and international publications. He is a senior member of the IEEE, and was awarded IEEE OES Presidential Award in 2019.
Itzik Klein is an Assistant Professor, heading the Autonomous Navigation and Sensor Fusion Lab, at the Charney School of Marine Sciences, Hatter Department of Marine Technologies, University of Haifa. He is an IEEE Senior Member and a member of the IEEE Journal of Indoor and Seamless Positioning and Navigation (J-ISPIN) Editorial Board. Prior to joining the University of Haifa, he worked at leading companies in Israel on navigation topics for more than 15 years. He has a wide range of experience in navigation systems and sensor fusion from both industry and academic perspectives. His research interests lie in the intersection of artificial intelligence with inertial sensing, sensor fusion, and autonomous underwater vehicles.
John R. Potter (IEEE M’94, SM’02, F’18) graduated in the previous century with a joint honours Mathematics and Physics Degree from Bristol and a PhD. in Glaciology and Oceanography from Cambridge, UK studying Antarctic ice mass balance, where he spent four consecutive summers. This work helped underscore the non-linear fragility of polar ice to climate change and led to him receiving the Polar Medal from Queen Elizabeth II in 1988.
Nick is a Visiting Fellow at the UK National Oceanographic Center, Southampton His nomination was endorsed by the Underwater Acoustics Technology Committee. He had worked as a Research Associate and Lecturer at University of Birmingham and has been working as a Research Scientist at the Applied Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin. He has also served as a Program Officer at the Office of Naval Research Global. He is a senior member of IEEE (OES) and a Fellow of Acoustical Society of America (ASA). Nick has also been serving as Assoc. Editor for IEEE JoE and JASA. He is widely acknowledged for his expertise are seabed acoustics, parametric array modeling, sonar beamformer, underwater signal processing.
Maurizio Migliaccio (M’91-SM’00-F’17) is Full professor of Electromagnetics at Università di Napoli Parthenope (Italy) and was Affiliated Full Professor at NOVA Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL (USA). He has been teaching Microwave Remote Sensing since 1994. He was visiting scientist at Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Lüft und Raumfahrt (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. He was member of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) scientific committee. He was member of the ASI CosmoSkyMed second generation panel. He was e-geos AdCom member. He was Italian delegate of the ESA PB-EO board. He was Member of South Africa Expert Review Panel for Space Exploration. He serves as reviewer for the UE, Italian Research Ministry (MIUR), NCST, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong Research board. He lectured in USA, Canada, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Italy. He was Italian delegate at UE COST SMOS Mode Action. He is listed in the Italian Top Scientists. He is an IEEE Trans. Geoscience and Remote Sensing AE, International Journal of Remote Sensing AE, and was IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering AE Special Issue on Radar for Marine and Maritime Remote Sensing, IEEE JSTARS AE of the Special Issue on CosmoSKyMed, Member of the Indian Journal of Radio & Space Physics Editorial board. His main current scientific interests cover SAR sea oil slick and man-made target monitoring, remote sensing for marine and coastal applications, remote sensing for agriculture monitoring, polarimetry, inverse problems for resolution enhancement, reverberating chambers. He published about 160 peer-reviewed journal papers on remote sensing and applied electromagnetics.
He has developed various types of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and related application technologies including navigation methods, a new sensing method using a chemical sensor, precise seafloor mapping methods, a precise seabed positioning system with a resolution of a few centimeters, a new sensing system of the thickness of cobalt-rich crust; and more. He has shown, by using these technologies that AUVs are practicable and valuable tools for deep-sea exploration.
Donna Kocak has had an outstanding career in defense and scientific projects developing and applying solutions in subsea optics, imaging and robotics. She graduated with an M.Sc in Computer Science in 1997 from the University of Central Florida; an MBA in 2008 from the University of Florida; and M.Sc in Industrial Engineering in 2011 from the University of Central Florida. She is currently a Senior Scientist, Advanced Concepts Engineering, and Fellow at the Harris Corporation in Melbourne, Florida, where she has developed novel optical imaging and communication solutions for under-sea defense and scientific projects. Prior to 2008 Donna Kocak was Founder and President of Green Sky Imaging, LLC (GSI) who developed laser/video photogrammetry software for underwater inspection and survey. Her earlier career positions were with Naval Training Systems Center, Florida; Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Florida; eMerge Interactive; and the Advanced Technologies Group in Florida.
John Potter has a Joint Honours degree in Mathematics and Physics from Bristol University in the UK and a PhD in Glaciology and Oceanography from the University of Cambridge on research in the Antarctic, for which he was awarded the Polar Medal in 1988. John has worked on polar oceanography, underwater acoustics, ambient noise (including imaging), marine mammals, communications, IoUT, autonomous vehicles and strategic development. He has 40 years’ international experience working at the British Antarctic Survey in the UK, NATO in Italy, SIO in California, NUS in Singapore and most recently at NTNU in Norway. John is a Fellow of the IEEE and MTS, an Associate Editor for the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, IEEE OES Distinguished Lecturer, PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer & an International Fellow of the Explorer’s Club.
Dr. James V. Candy is the Chief Scientist for Engineering and former Director of the Center for Advanced Signal & Image Sciences at the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Candy received a commission in the USAF in 1967 and was a Systems Engineer/Test Director from 1967 to 1971. He has been a Researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since 1976 holding various positions including that of Project Engineer for Signal Processing and Thrust Area Leader for Signal and Control Engineering. Educationally, he received his B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Cincinnati and his M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville. He is a registered Control System Engineer in the state of California. He has been an Adjunct Professor at San Francisco State University, University of Santa Clara, and UC Berkeley, Extension teaching graduate courses in signal and image processing. He is an Adjunct Full-Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Candy is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and elected as a Life Member (Fellow) at the University of Cambridge (Clare Hall College). He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Phi Kappa Phi honorary societies. He was elected as a Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Candy received the IEEE Distinguished Technical Achievement Award for the “development of model-based signal processing in ocean acoustics.” Dr. Candy was selected as a IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for oceanic signal processing as well as presenting an IEEE tutorial on advanced signal processing available through their video website courses. He was nominated for the prestigious Edward Teller Fellowship at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Candy was awarded the Interdisciplinary Helmholtz-Rayleigh Silver Medal in Signal Processing/Underwater Acoustics by the Acoustical Society of America for his technical contributions. He has published over 225 journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports as well as written three texts in signal processing, “Signal Processing: the Model-Based Approach,” (McGraw-Hill, 1986), “Signal Processing: the Modern Approach,” (McGraw-Hill, 1988), “Model-Based Signal Processing,” (Wiley/IEEE Press, 2006) and “Bayesian Signal Processing: Classical, Modern and Particle Filtering” (Wiley/IEEE Press, 2009). He was the General Chairman of the inaugural 2006 IEEE Nonlinear Statistical Signal Processing Workshop held at the Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge. He has presented a variety of short courses and tutorials sponsored by the IEEE and ASA in Applied Signal Processing, Spectral Estimation, Advanced Digital Signal Processing, Applied Model-Based Signal Processing, Applied Acoustical Signal Processing, Model-Based Ocean Acoustic Signal Processing and Bayesian Signal Processing for IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society/ASA. He has also presented short courses in Applied Model-Based Signal Processing for the SPIE Optical Society. He is currently the IEEE Chair of the Technical Committee on “Sonar Signal and Image Processing” and was the Chair of the ASA Technical Committee on “Signal Processing in Acoustics” as well as being an Associate Editor for Signal Processing of ASA (on-line JASAXL). He was recently nominated for the Vice Presidency of the ASA and elected as a member of the Administrative Committee of IEEE OES. His research interests include Bayesian estimation, identification, spatial estimation, signal and image processing, array signal processing, nonlinear signal processing, tomography, sonar/radar processing and biomedical applications.
Kenneth Foote is a Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from The George Washington University in 1968, and a Ph.D. in Physics from Brown University in 1973. He was an engineer at Raytheon Company, 1968-1974; postdoctoral scholar at Loughborough University of Technology, 1974-1975; research fellow and substitute lecturer at the University of Bergen, 1975-1981. He began working at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, in 1979; joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1999. His general area of expertise is in underwater sound scattering, with applications to the quantification of fish, other aquatic organisms, and physical scatterers in the water column and on the seafloor. In developing and transitioning acoustic methods and instruments to operations at sea, he has worked from 77°N to 55°S.
René Garello, professor at Télécom Bretagne, Fellow IEEE, co-leader of the TOMS (Traitements, Observations et Méthodes Statistiques) research team, in Pôle CID of the UMR CNRS 3192 Lab-STICC.
Professor Mal Heron is Adjunct Professor in the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, and is CEO of Portmap Remote Ocean Sensing Pty Ltd. His PhD work in Auckland, New Zealand, was on radio-wave probing of the ionosphere, and that is reflected in his early ionospheric papers. He changed research fields to the scattering of HF radio waves from the ocean surface during the 1980s. Through the 1990s his research has broadened into oceanographic phenomena which can be studied by remote sensing, including HF radar and salinity mapping from airborne microwave radiometers . Throughout, there have been one-off papers where he has been involved in solving a problem in a cognate area like medical physics, and paleobiogeography. Occasionally, he has diverted into side-tracks like a burst of papers on the effect of bushfires on radio communications. His present project of the Australian Coastal Ocean Radar Network (ACORN) is about the development of new processing methods and applications of HF radar data to address oceanography problems. He is currently promoting the use of high resolution VHF ocean radars, based on the PortMap high resolution radar.
Hanu Singh graduated B.S. ECE and Computer Science (1989) from George Mason University and Ph.D. (1995) from MIT/Woods Hole.He led the development and commercialization of the Seabed AUV, nine of which are in operation at other universities and government laboratories around the world. He was technical lead for development and operations for Polar AUVs (Jaguar and Puma) and towed vehicles(Camper and Seasled), and the development and commercialization of the Jetyak ASVs, 18 of which are currently in use. He was involved in the development of UAS for polar and oceanographic applications, and high resolution multi-sensor acoustic and optical mapping with underwater vehicles on over 55 oceanographic cruises in support of physical oceanography, marine archaeology, biology, fisheries, coral reef studies, geology and geophysics and sea-ice studies. He is an accomplished Research Student advisor and has made strong collaborations across the US (including at MIT, SIO, Stanford, Columbia LDEO) and internationally including in the UK, Australia, Canada, Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, India, Sweden and Norway. Hanu Singh is currently Chair of the IEEE Ocean Engineering Technology Committee on Autonomous Marine Systems with responsibilities that include organizing the biennial IEEE AUV Conference, 2008 onwards. Associate Editor, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, 2007-2011. Associate editor, Journal of Field Robotics 2012 onwards.
Milica Stojanovic graduated from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, in 1988, and received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, in 1991 and 1993. She was a Principal Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in 2008 joined Northeastern University, where she is currently a Professor of electrical and computer engineering. She is also a Guest Investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Milica’s research interests include digital communications theory, statistical signal processing and wireless networks, and their applications to underwater acoustic systems. She has made pioneering contributions to underwater acoustic communications, and her work has been widely cited. She is a Fellow of the IEEE, and serves as an Associate Editor for its Journal of Oceanic Engineering (and in the past for Transactions on Signal Processing and Transactions on Vehicular Technology). She also serves on the Advisory Board of the IEEE Communication Letters, and chairs the IEEE Ocean Engineering Society’s Technical Committee for Underwater Communication, Navigation and Positioning. Milica is the recipient of the 2015 IEEE/OES Distinguished Technical Achievement Award.
Dr. Paul C. Hines was born and raised in Glace Bay, Cape Breton. From 1977-1981 he attended Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, graduating with a B.Sc. (Hon) in Engineering-Physics.