Introduction

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) provide an effective way to survey and monitor our oceans. As the capabilities of AUVs increase, they become large, heavy, complex and expensive. Our research is focused on developing small, light and low-cost AUVs that can cooperate and perform complex tasks as a heterogeneous team. The research in this area spans many disciplines and is very exciting. We collaborate with many groups in NUS, NTU, MIT and ISME to try and achieve this vision of teams of co-operating low-cost vehicles.

We have several projects contributing technologies towards this goal. Some of the key projects in this area are described below:

STARFISH

We started developing a Small Team of Autonomous Robotic "Fish" (STARFISH) in 2006. As part of the STARFISH project, we have developed an open-architecture modular AUV that can be used as a research platform to test collaborative AUV algorithms. The base AUV weighs less than 45 kg and is about 1.6 m long and provides basic positioning, navigation, obstacle avoidance and communication capability. Additional modules can be built based on an open specification; these modules increase the sensing or actuation capability of the AUV.

Folaga

The Folaga is a low-cost hybrid glider-like AUV developed through a partnership between ISME, NURC and GraalTech. Through a collaborative project with ISME, ARL will help enhance the Folaga to have communication capability and operate as part of a team of AUVs. We envision many disparate low-cost AUVs to cooperate to achieve a mission; we will be able to test some of these ideas with the STARFISH AUV and Folaga.

Networked Environmental Monitoring

In a collaborative project with MIT and NTU (through CENSAM), we will be exploring technologies for marine environmental monitoring. The project will involve cooperative monitoring using autonomous underwater, surface and fixed platforms. Fixed platforms such as the PANDAs and surface platforms such as autonomous Kayaks may be used as communication and navigation gateways or as sensor nodes. Specially designed sensor and actuator payloads on STARFISH AUVs will allow environmental surveys to be performed quickly and efficiently. The project has started in early 2008 and will last until 2012.