Design Project Management: Boeing Underwater Robotic Technologies [R13201]

1. Design Project Management: Boeing Underwater Robotic Technologies [R13201] Rochester Institute of Technology

2. Agenda • General Background Information • Motivation • Boeing Interests • Project Background/VOC • Questions Rochester Institute of Technology

3. Background Information • Current Relationship • Co-op Program • Full-Time Hires • Academic Partnership • Research • Underwater Robotics Club • Senior Design Projects • Boeings Marine Background • Echo Ranger Rochester Institute of Technology

4. Motivation • Boeing Motivation • Future research opportunities • RIT has no attachment to competitors • Technological advancements/fresh ideas • RIT Motivation • Improve relationship with major company • Underwater technology specialty • Student involvement Rochester Institute of Technology

5. Boeing Areas of Interest • Limited Bandwidth Communications • Autonomous Systems • Energy Systems • Navigation Systems • Payloads and Sensors Rochester Institute of Technology

6. Limited Bandwidth Communications • Background • Boeing is interested in a way of communicating quickly, and possibly discretely, underwater • Boeing currently uses acoustic based communications but they have short range and reveal the sender’s position • Radio Frequency based communications have difficulty operating at range underwater so traditional RF systems are unlikely a solution underwater • Boeing’s interest is currently in the methods of LED or Laser based communication • Sonardyneand WHOI are working to produce BlueComm, a short range, high transfer speed communicator using LEDs Rochester Institute of Technology

7. Limited Bandwidth Communications - VOC • Stakeholders • Possibly Dr. Swartzlander (we have been unable to get in contact with him) • Kevin Meredith - Boeing • Dr. Hensel - RIT Dept. Head • Boeing Customers Rochester Institute of Technology

8. Autonomous Systems in Marine and Air Environments • What is autonomy & how does it work? • The ability of a machine to make decisions without human intervention. To that end, the goal of autonomy is to teach machines to be "smart" and act more like humans - artificial intelligence (AI) • Program the robot to respond a certain way to outside stimuli • Program and sensors work together to tell the robot what to do • Current Technologies in Autonomy • UAV – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles • Aka “Drone” – example: RQ-1/MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper, RQ-7 Shadow, etc. • Controlled either autonomously by onboard computers or remotely by a pilot in a ground station • AUV – Autonomous Underwater Vehicles • Operate independent of human input • Have commercial applications (oil and gas), military applications, and research applications • Current Boeing Technologies • Echo Ranger is autonomous • Boeing has a good handle on autonomy but would like to stay ahead of competitors RQ-1/MQ-1 Predator Rochester Institute of Technology MQ-9 Reaper

9. Autonomous Systems in Marine and Air Environments Autonomy technology that is important to UAV development falls under the following categories Sensor fusion: Combining information from different sensors for use on board the vehicle Communications: Handling communication and coordination between multiple agents in the presence of incomplete and imperfect information Path planning: Determining an optimal path for vehicle to go while meeting certain objectives and mission constraints, such as obstacles or fuel requirements Trajectory Generation (Motion planning): Determining an optimal control maneuver to take to follow a given path or to go from one location to another Trajectory Regulation: The specific control strategies required to constrain a vehicle within some tolerance to a trajectory Task Allocation and Scheduling: Determining the optimal distribution of tasks amongst a group of agents, with time and equipment constraints Cooperative Tactics: Formulating an optimal sequence and spatial distribution of activities between agents in order to maximize chance of success in any given mission scenario Rochester Institute of Technology

10. Autonomous Systems in Marine and Air Environments • Autonomous System Technologies Research & Integration Laboratory (ASTRIL) is broadly interested in the area of Robotics and Unmanned/Autonomous Systems • Research focuses: • Simulation • Guidance • Navigation and Control for Unmanned, Aerial Vehicles in particular – algorithmic design and implementation to field experimentation of aerial robots • Current research areas:1. GPS-denied Estimation and Navigation: • Development of robust algorithms to estimate the state (position, attitude and velocity) of UAVs in GPS-denied environments using a combination of Vision, LIDAR and Inertial Sensors • 2. Obstacle Avoidance, Mapping and Navigation: • Development of algorithms for obstacle avoidance based on Vision for fixed wing and rotary aerial vehicles • 3. Autonomous Landing on Moving Targets: • Design & implementation of a real-time, vision-based landing algorithm for an autonomous helicopter. The landing algorithm is integrated with algorithms for visual acquisition of the target (a helipad), and navigation to the target, from an arbitrary initial position and orientation plan to use vision for precise target detection and recognition • Underwater Mapping: • Using a combination of Vision and Inertial Sensors this project focuses on developing algorithms for mapping and navigation for autonomous vehicles Rochester Institute of Technology

11. Autonomous Systems in Marine and Air Environments • Stakeholders • Kevin Meredith – Boeing • Wants to plug in new modules to existing architecture • Boeing would like to research and develop new systems & technology that they don’t currently have • Interested in swarm robotics • Dr. Ed Hensel – RIT • Dr. FeratSahin – RIT • Advisor to Robotics Club • Sees potential senior design projects consisting of autonomy, navigation, and propulsion • Dr. Kolodziej – RIT • Current project (for imaging science) • Remote controlled • Targeting for an autonomous aircraft (future project) • Look into “Ardupilot” • To replace the usage of real aircrafts in order to take pictures • To airborne cameras • RIT Robotics Club • Has IGVC (Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition) experience • Teams design and build an autonomous ground vehicle capable of completing several difficult challenges • RIT has placed very well recently (3rd place last year) Rochester Institute of Technology

12. Autonomous Systems in Marine and Air Environments Objective Tree Rochester Institute of Technology

13. Energy Systems • Background • Boeing’s Current Technology • Conformal Batteries • Boeing’s Interests • Energy Harvesting (Thermoelectrics and Motion) • StirlingEnergy & Fuel Cell Development • Nuclear Power • Enhancing Battery Performance Rochester Institute of Technology

14. Energy Systems – Current Research • Thermoelectric Devices • Solid state devices which can convert thermal energy into electrical energy  • Design for power generation applications Rochester Institute of Technology

15. Energy Systems – VOC Stakeholders Rochester Institute of Technology

16. Navigation Systems • Background • Current Boeing technology • Inertial Navigation currently used in Echo Ranger • GPS for surface navigation, position correction • Problems associated with "drift" in Inertial Systems • RIT Research • Dr. Crassidis is developing an inertial navigation system which minimizes drift Typical Pizoelectric Accelerometer Rochester Institute of Technology

17. Navigation Systems - VOC Stakeholders Rochester Institute of Technology

18. Payloads and Sensors • Background • The underwater vehicle is simply a mode of transportation for customers • Payload – Any devices or instrumentation that the customer wants to utilize underwater • Projects would be driven by Boeing’s customers’ needs • Payload Systems of interest: • Sensor packages – modular • Smaller, secondary robotic vessels • Further defined by customer research Echo Ranger Rochester Institute of Technology

19. Payloads and Sensors - VOC • Stakeholders • Dr. Walter - RIT • Dr. Kempski - RIT (possible - still need to set up contact) • Dr. Borkholder • Kevin Meredith - Boeing • Dr. Hensel - RIT Dept. Head • Boeing Customers Rochester Institute of Technology

20. Underwater Robotics Club • Background • It’s RIT’s hope that an Underwater Robotics Club will spawn from student interest with collaboration from Boeing • The club will eventually assemble the components produced by senior design teams • The club will have the opportunity to compete in underwater robotics competitions Image from: www. robotshop.com Rochester Institute of Technology

21. Q&A • Do you know any faculty who we haven’t talked to yet that have research interest in any of these areas? • Does anyone have interest in joining the Underwater Robotics Club? • Do you have any questions, comments, or concerns for us? Rochester Institute of Technology