Yuta Matsuoka, Shun Fukushima, Keisuke Nishimuta, Yuto Nakazuru and Xu Ha, Kyushu Technological University
Introduction
The Okinawa Marine Robot Competition 2023[1] was held on November 18th and 19th, and Kyushu Institute of Technology participated as a team called “Kyushu Institute of Technology Underwater Robotics.”
Since this tournament is held at a fishing port, it is necessary to control the robots by taking into account the effects of tides and ebbs and flows, and the tournament places more emphasis on operation in actual waters than tournaments held in pools.
Therefore, Kyushu Technological University Underwater Robotics participated in the competition believing that, through this competition, they would be able to gain knowledge and experience regarding AUV operation in actual sea areas.
Rules
There are two competitions: normal task and intelligence/measurement challenge. In a normal task, the robot travels back and forth through a course (Fig.2, Fig.3) that consisted of a start/end area (SG area), a diving and surfacing area, a diving area, and a sea navigation area. This is done twice in the preliminary rounds, and the teams are ranked based on the average of the points earned in the first and second rounds shown on Table 1, and the top two teams compete in the finals. Please note that in the AUB category, you will not be able to participate in the finals unless you complete tasks number 2 or 4.
Table.1 Tasks and scores
| No. | task | point |
| 1 | Sea navigation from SG area to submersible surfacing area | 15 |
| 2 | Submarine navigation (diving time measurement) | 25 |
| 3 | Surfacing within the maritime navigation area | 20 |
| 4 | Submarine navigation (diving time measurement) | 25 |
| 5 | Sea navigation from diving surface area to SG area | 15 |
In the intelligence/measurement challenge, the developed acoustic positioning technology was used to find a pinger located 30m away from the starting area, hover within a 2m radius, and then return to the starting position and surface. During this mission, the vehicle must remain submerged at all times, and commercially available navigation (IMU, DVL, acoustic positioning system) is prohibited to use.
KYUBIC
We entered this competition with KYUBIC [Figure 4], a hovering AUV, which we developed and improved in 2020. The origin of the name is kyutech and cubic. KYUBIC is equipped with a high-precision IMU and DVL and is capable of accurate self-position estimation. Additionally, KYUBIC can also handle advanced missions with two cameras and a unique acoustic positioning module.
KYUBIC mainly consists of 5 hulls, 6 thrusters, 6 hydrophones, and a DVL. Inside the main hull, there is a PC that controls KYUBIC, an IMU, two cameras, etc. [2].
KYUBIC supports various programs by transmitting data using ROS network.
The development environment is available for
Control, image processing, communication with sensors.
The communication interface program is developed as a separate Simulink model and communicated via the ROS network.
Therefore, data can be exchanged with other programs using various programming languages, and highly scalable systems can be developed in a short period of time.
Hydrophone
The developed acoustic positioning device consists of six hydrophones, an AD converter housed in a pressure-resistant container, and a Raspberry Pi. The connections of each device are shown in Fig.5. The analog signal obtained by the MEMS microphone passes through a bandpass filter and is input to the AD converter, and the converted digital signal is sent to the Raspberry Pi via USB2.0. On the Raspberry Pi, the location of the pinger relative to the robot is calculated from the difference in the timing when each hydrophone receives the pinger sound. The information is sent to KYUBIC’s control hull via Ethernet and used to control the robot.
Hydrophones are amplifiers that can amplify up to about 50 times. Compatible with TLV316 and wide band from 100Hz to 80kHz.
Board is equipped with MEMS microphone SPU0410LR5H-QB. It was developed based on Structure of the developed hydrophone.
The structure is shown in Fig.6. Overall, it is a small pressure vessel.
The sensor part is made of pressure-resident waterproof resin Jel-lafin, which ensures waterproofness and noise reduction. Efforts have been made to receive waves. Also, the amplifier allows access to variable resistor to set amplification factor to ensure this, an O-ring is used between the aluminum housings. It has a structure that can be disassembled.
Additionally, the shield of the communication cable between the AD converter and AD controller is grounded on the inverter side. Therefore, the structure makes it difficult for noise to enter during analog signal transmission.
Strategies for the intelligence/measurement challenge
We developed acoustic positioning technology for the intelligence measurement challenge. Because the development was not completed in time for this competition, only two of the hydrophones installed in KYUBIC could be used, and the pinger position was estimated only using SSBL. In position estimation using SBL and all hydrophones, reaching the estimated coordinates of the pinger can be used as a determination of arrival, but SSBL can only estimate the direction of Pinga relative to KYUBIC and cannot calculate the distance. Therefore, the captured sound pressure of the Pinga was used as a measure of the distance between the Pinga and the KYUBIC, and when the sound pressure exceeded a critical value, it was determined that the Pinga was sufficiently close to the Pinga.
Result
In the first preliminary round of the AUV normal task, KYUBIC started moving backwards immediately after starting it. After that, we restarted, but timed out in the diving area. In the second preliminary round, there was no problem starting the KYUBIC, but it suddenly sank in the diving area, stopped working, and had to be recovered. In the final race, after KYUBIC started up, it ran straight ahead diagonally to the left. Halfway through the diving area, the KYUBIC stopped near an embankment on the left side of the course. KYUBIC turned on the spot and faced the embankment, then turned toward the maritime navigation area and headed straight ahead. We turned around in the maritime navigation area, went straight to the left again, went off course, and recovered. Although many unexpected problems arose, the overall score in the AUV normal task category was 1st out of 4 teams, and we were able to receive a special award.
Table.2 Scores in normal task category
| Presentation | qualifying game1 | qualifying game2 | finals | overall band score |
| 30 | 15 | 15 | 30 | 70 |
In the “Intelligence Measurement Challenge” category, when the KYUBIC is activated, after a few seconds it is judged to have reached its goal and the KYUBIC returns. In the second preliminary round, KYUBIC arrived around Pinga and was spinning around, but it was not determined that they had arrived at the landmark, so they were unable to score points.
Table.3 Scores in the intelligence measurement challenge category
| workshop points | Competition score (average) | Technical explanation points | total | rank |
| 20 | 0 | 32.5 | 52.5 | 3 |
Comments
Yuta Matsuoka: At this Okinawa competition, the program we created could not be utilized well, so we thought it was necessary to debug and improve it.
Shun Fukushima: The Okinawa Underwater Robotics Competition was the first underwater robotics competition I participated in. I believe that developing underwater robots through this competition will greatly benefit my future career.
Keisuke Nishimuta: During the competition, we felt the difficulty of controlling an underwater robot in a rough sea. In addition, there were some unexpected accidents, which made us realize the importance of the ability to react on the spot.
Yuto Nakazuru: This time, since the competition was held in actual waters, various accidents occurred, and I was disappointed that I could not show my full performance in the actual race. I will try to improve KYUBIC in order to get a satisfactory result at the next competition.
Xu Han: Looking back, I realized how difficult it was to develop underwater robots and the importance of teamwork. Through cooperation with team members during the development process, I was able to not only increase team cohesion but also gain valuable team development experience. I believe that what I learned at this conference will definitely be of great help in my future research.
Acknowledgment
The 2023 Okinawa Marine Robot Competition is organized by IEEE/OES Japan Chapter, Ia Co., Ltd., Marine Engineering Co., Ltd., Globalway Co., Ltd., Sankei Shimbun (Offshore Tech Japan), Tsuneishi Craft & Facilities Co., Ltd., Japan Marine Enterprises Co., Ltd. The event was sponsored by the Japan Underwater Drone Association, FullDepth Co., Ltd., Yanmar Holdings Co., Ltd., Kowa Co., Ltd., Space One Co., Ltd., Sensite Competition, Bell Techne Co., Ltd., and Osago Co., Ltd. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the sponsors for their tremendous support and cooperation in organizing the tournament.
References
[1] The 9th Underwater Robotics Competition in Okinawa.https://www.robo-underwater.jp/2023/rchp/JPN/index.php
[2] Yoshiki Tanaka, Toshimune Matsumura, Yuichiro Uemura, Kentaro Yanagise, Yuya Nishida, Kazuo Ishi, “Development of a Testbed AUV for Shallow Water Observation and Its Controller Evaluation,” Journal of Robotics, Networking and Artificial Life, Vol. 10(1), pp. 6–16, 2023.
From left, Mr. Nishimuta, Mr. Fukushima,
Mr. Matsuoka, Mr. Nakazuru, Mr. Han
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.