Takumi Matsuda, The University of Tokyo, IEEE OES Japan Chapter
Introduction
Underwater Robot Convention 2019 was held in JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology) from August 23rd to August 25th, 2019 [1, 2]. This event in JAMSTEC was held from 2010 and it is 10th time this year. More than 200 researchers, engineers, students, and visitors from institutions across the country participated in the convention. The convention has three sections: a free style section, an AI challenge section, and a junior section.
The Underwater Robot Convention by the NPO Japan Underwater Robot Network [3] can strengthen research cooperation between underwater robot researchers in Japan and neighboring Asian countries, and develop next-generation underwater robot researchers. The convention has been introduced in this newsletter several times in the past [4-6]. This event usually involves about 20 teams. Most of them are researchers and students who are interested in underwater robotics. Each team brings the latest underwater robot that realizes the latest ideas and innovations that occur in the laboratory. As a result, this is a unique and wonderful opportunity to discuss and exchange the latest ideas and innovations in a friendly and competitive atmosphere.
Free Style Section
Each team develops a robot based on unique ideas and participates in the convention. They compete for the originality of their robots. In addition to the development background, the practicality and originality of their robot is evaluated. Each team competes for the total score of weight points, presentation points, and competition points. The competition points are determined by performing a 4-minute performance twice.
AI Challenge Section
This section is held for the first time this year. Each team implements their developed algorithms on their robot provided in advance or developed on their own, and compete for their processing capabilities. They compete for the sum of presentation points and competition points. A training seminar is held in this section to provide knowledge for development.
Junior Section
The junior section is a competition for junior high school students, high school students and technical college students. Underwater robot kits are provided free of charge to the teams entered one month before the tournament. Participants assemble and modify them before the competition. The task in this competition is collecting cans. Each team is evaluated based on how many cans can be collected within the limited time. Higher scores can be expected if cans can be collected from a field simulating seaweed.
AI challenge section. Each team introduced the specification and originality of their robot.
Prior to the competition, the seminar was held. The objective of this seminar is to encourage the information exchange and strengthen the technical expertise of the whole community. More than 100 researchers, engineers, and students attended the seminar this year. There were lectures about the investigation of shipwrecks using underwater robot technology, about reproducing extinct creatures as robots, and about Team KUROSHIO which participated in the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE [7, 8].
Results
In the free style section, there were various kinds of robots, such as robots developed based on a paleoorganism and Gokai, a multicopter, which moves underwater and in air, and a helicopter type robot. Each team developed the robot based on their unique ideas. Each robot is introduced in the following sections.
OYG-YKT_3 (Keio Shonan Fujisawa Senior High School)
The series of this robot was developed six years ago to investigate the ecosystem of the Gulliver Pond in the school. OYG-YKT_3 is the third edition. Cameras are equipped for the investigation of the environment. This pond is very shallow (depth is 1m), so the robot must be low and flat. A PVC pipe and an acrylic board are used for the robot. Four vertical and horizontal thrusters are installed. Arduino and Raspberry Pi are used for control.
Drepana First Edition (Tokyo Tech High School of Science and Technology)
This robot is an underwater glider that was developed based on a paleoorganism called Drepanaspis. The robot can perform several actions: diving, surfacing, and swimming. It swims from the starting point to the destination using the GPS position and then dives for an arbitrary time. The purpose is to collect water temperature data at regular intervals using a temperature sensor in the destination area. After completing collection of data, the robot surfaces and returns to the starting point.
The robot was made by PP board. Inside the robot, Arduino and GPS modules used for control are installed. Waterproof servo motors are fixed to the robot. Systems for adjusting buoyancy and moving the tail fin are installed.
Moonswim III (Shinshu University)
This robot was developed by focusing on Gokai. It has a fin that correspond to the warts. By changing the angle of the fin, it can swim in all directions and move back as if it is moving forward, so it was named as Moonswim. After that, several generations were developed. Moonswim II can move left and right fins actively, and Moonswim III has improved actuators and control system.
MizudeppoTaro (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
This robot can recognize moving objects and knocks them out with a water gun. It recognizes the surroundings by a phased array sonar using multiple ultrasonic sensors. In addition, the sonar recognizes the signal from the fixed marker placed on the ground, so that the distance and direction from the fixed marker are determined, and then self-position estimation can be performed. This phased array is also assumed to be used for underwater terrain mapping and object recognition.
gen4 (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
gen4 has 4 thrusters which consist of one surge thruster, one heave thruster, and 2 sway thrusters. Pressure hulls for thrusters and computers are separated. It is designed to launch a handset. The robot is covered with a plastic plate to reduce the water resistance so that it can move forward faster. The thruster for forward movement is being improved so that large power can be used.
Ginjiro (Keio University)
Ginjiro is an autonomous underwater robot that is aimed to investigate the oceans of the extraterrestrial bodies. The robot takes images of the seabed over a wide area after being transported to the target celestial body by a rocket. And then, it transmits the information to the station of the earth. In the future, a seafloor map can be obtained by analyzing the video. Besides, water temperature, components contained in the water can be measured and mapped. The robot has a pressure-hull that contains the control unit. Camera unit is located in the front. It has four thrusters that consist of two horizontal thrusters and two heave thrusters for navigation.
Stingray (Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology)
This robot can be controlled in surge and yaw directions by two horizontal thrusters. Heave, roll and pitch control is performed by three vertical thrusters. A wide variety of equipment can be attached to the 20 mm rail at the bottom of the robot. Attachments can be selected depending on the application. Since the robot is operated by tether cable, stable operation can be realized.
HSK-19 (Hakodate Fisheries High School)
HSK-19 is an ROV equipped with both horizontal and vertical thrusters. The thruster uses a kerosene pump motor. Power is supplied from the battery on the land side by wired cable. In addition to the power cable, a video output cable is provided. The action cam is used for video output and recording. Although the heavy materials, such as aluminum plates, are used in the robot structure, this team still tries to reduce the design weight.
DTRU (Tokushima University)
Diving Tilt Rotor UAV (DTRU) is an underwater and aerial multicopter, which was developed based on a 4-shot tiltrotor multicopter. A radio wave of 72MHz is used for control. It can dive by its thrusters and move underwater by tilting its thruster. It succeeded in diving 3m depth in the pool. It has also navigated successfully in rivers.
Marine Da Vinci Copter (National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Oyama College)
This robot is developed based on a helicopter devised by Leonardo da Vinci. An air screw (hereinafter referred to as a Da Vinci screw) is used for the propeller of this helicopter. This helicopter cannot fly in the air, but when operated in water, the helicopter can move due to the high viscosity of the fluid and buoyancy. This robot can realize a Da Vinci helicopter that flies elegantly underwater.
There were many robots based on unique ideas in this year’s competition. Among them, Moonswim III from Shinshu University won the first prize. This team demonstrated that their robot can change the moving direction by changing the angle of the fin.
In the AI challenge section, the robot recognizes and breaks red, yellow, and blue balloons deployed in the water. Scores vary by color, with 30 points for red, 20 points for yellow, and 10 points for blue. A method of recognizing by masking and a method of recognizing using machine learning were adopted. In addition, each team showed its own uniqueness, such as focusing on a specific color and crushing balloons from above. The robot named jellyfish from Toyohashi University of Technology won the first prize this year. This team succeeded in breaking five red balloons.
In the junior section, each team competes the performance of their robots and skills. Each team developed the robot before the convention using a kit provided from the committee. On the first day, they conducted an operation test of their robots. On the second day, they competed to control the robot, pick up empty cans on the pool floor, and competed their ability to operate the robot.
The scene of the free style section. The left: Moonswim III from Shinshu University (first prize). The right: Marine Da Vinci Copter from National Institute of Technology, Oyama College (second prize).
The scene of the AI challenge section. The left: the robot tried to break the yellow balloon using a machine learning approach. The right: the robot from Toyohashi University of Technology which won the first prize.
The awards ceremony. Top three or two teams in each section were awarded. The top left: Shinshu University, which won the first prize in the free style section. The top right: Toyohashi University of Technology, which won the first prize in the AI challenge section. The bottom left: Shibaura Institute of Technology Senior High School, which won the first prize in the junior section. Special award was also given to one team shown in the bottom right.
In all the sections, many teams were confronted with difficulty of hardware trouble such as thrusters, cameras, water leak and so on. The convention provided an excellent opportunity for all participants to show and share the latest technique in the field of underwater robots. After the convention, they share each idea and leave with a sense of satisfaction. Human networks made through the convention will lead to the development in underwater techniques and the encouragement of the next generation of underwater robotics researchers.
For more details about the activity of the Underwater Robot Convention, NPO Japan Underwater Robot Network, visit the links shown in the references.
References
- Underwater Robot Convention in JAMSTEC 2019, http://jam19.underwaterrobonet.org/
- JAMSTEC, http://www.jamstec.go.jp/e/
- NPO Japan Underwater Robot Network, http://underwaterrobonet.org/
- Matsuda, K. Asakawa, T. Maki, Underwater Robot Convention in Japan, IEEE OES Newsletter, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp.14-17, 2015.12
- Horimoto, T. Nishimura, T. Matsuda, AUV “Minty Roll” and results of “Underwater Robot Convention 2017 in JAMSTEC”, IEEE OES Beacon Newsletter, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 77-79, 2017.12
- Yamagata, T. Maki, Underwater Robot Convention in JAMSTEC 2018 — from an Educational Perspective, IEEE OES Beacon Newsletter, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 68-72, 2018.12
- Team KUROSHIO, https://team-kuroshio.jp/
- Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, https://www.xprize.org/prizes/ocean-discovery
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.