eurathlon 2014 Missions & Rules 1 (Version 02 September 2014)

Transcription

1 eurathlon 2014 Missions & Rules 1 (Version 02 September 2014) Competition date: September 29- October 3, 2014 Competition venue: Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), Viale San Bartolomeo , La Spezia, Italy. 1 These rules are subject to change, refinement and development but will for sure be frozen starting the 1st day of the competition. Please visit for the current version!

2 Content 0. LIST OF ACRONYMS 4 1 INTRODUCTION SCENARIOS OVERVIEW SAUC-E 2013 AND EURATHLON RULES AND OFFICIAL INFORMATION TEAMS COURSE OF ACTION DURING A TRIAL 7 2 APPLICATION PROCEDURE BASIC REQUIREMENTS REGISTRATION FEE PUBLICATION OF MATERIALS 9 3 SCHEDULE AND VENUE VENUE 10 4 VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS

3 5 REGULATIONS JUDGING TEAM LOGS GENERAL RULES: COMPETITION TIMING: 16 6 THE CHALLENGE: SCENARIOS LONG RANGE AUTONOMOUS UNDERWATER NAVIGATION ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY OF THE ACCIDENT AREA (MAPPING) LEAK LOCALISATION AND STRUCTURE INSPECTION INTERACTION WITH UNDERWATER STRUCTURES COMBINED SCENARIO 34 7 SCORING SCENARIO 1: LONG RANGE AUTONOMOUS UNDERWATER NAVIGATION SCENARIO 2: ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY OF THE ACCIDENT AREA (MAPPING) SCENARIO 3: LEAK LOCALISATION AND STRUCTURE INSPECTION SCENARIO 4: INTERACTION WITH UNDERWATER STRUCTURES SCENARIO 5: COMBINED SCENARIO SUBJECTIVE MEASURES 43 8 ROBOTIC KITS 46 9 CONCLUDING REMARKS

4 0. List of acronyms AUV Autonomous Underwater Vehicle CSV Comma Separated Values EU European Union GNC Guidance Navigation and Control H Height ID Inner Diameter L Length OD Outer Diameter OPI Objects of Potential Interest RIB Rigid Inflatable Boat ROS Robotic Operating System ROV Remotely Operated Vehicle SAP Scenario Application Paper SAUC-E Student Autonomous Underwater vehicle Challenge Europe TBD To Be Defined UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle USV Unmanned Surface Vehicle W Width 4

5 1 Introduction eurathlon is a new outdoor robotics competition that invites teams to test the intelligence and autonomy of their robots in challenging scenarios. Specifically, the project will propose and organize three different competitions: a land robotics competition carried out in Berchtesgaden, Germany, in September 2013; a sea robotics competition that will be held in Italy in 2014 and finally the eurathlon Grand Challenge involving the cooperation of robots from the sea, land and air domains that will be held in Italy in The 2015 eurathlon Grand Challenge will propose challenges inspired by the 2011 Fukushima accident and will require a combined team of robots to work together to survey the area of interest, collect environmental data, identify critical hazards and intervene on equipment present on the scene. Only through robot cooperation will the teams be able to successfully accomplish the proposed tasks. This document describes the scenarios and the rules for participation in the eurathlon 2014 sea competition, whose overall aim is to advance the state-of-the-art of Autonomous Underwater/Surface Vehicles by challenging multi-disciplinary teams of students and engineers, to perform autonomous missions in the marine environment in realistic scenarios. 1.1 Scenarios overview The scenarios for the eurathlon 2014 sea competition are focused on the aspects that will characterize the eurathlon 2015 Grand Challenge. The eurathlon 2015 Grand Challenge will require intervention tasks inspired by a Fukushima-like disaster, because of that possible related scenarios have been identified and proposed for the 2014 sea competition. In this way, the teams participating can use the 2014 sea competition as a valid benchmark to design and test solutions for the final eurathlon Grand Challenge. Five different tasks will be proposed to the teams, specifically Long range autonomous underwater navigation, Environmental survey of the accident area, Leak localisation and structure inspection, Interaction with underwater structures and Combined scenario. In the scenarios it is suggested to compete by using an AUV. A USV can be used to support and to help AUV operations. However, there are scenarios in which a team can compete by using only a USV. See later the description of the scenarios for details. Each participant team can subscribe to compete to one or more scenarios. 5

6 1.2 SAUC-E 2014 and eurathlon Student Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge Europe (SAUC-E) 2014 will be held at the Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), the same location of eurathlon 2014 one week before (from September 20 to September 26, 2014). SAUC-E and eurathlon are two separate events but will be organized back-to-back in SAUC-E is the competition which welcomes new participants (up to the number which is the physical limit for the CMRE area) while eurathlon seeks multi-robotic domain teams for 2015 and will most likely be more selective in proposing more challenging tasks. We warmly encourage the participation of teams to both the events. Furthermore, we will give the possibility during the period of SAUC-E 2014 for interested teams to practice for some eurathlon tasks. For this, we will provide teams with access to dedicated areas and the possibility to interact with some objects used for the eurathlon competition. 1.3 Rules and official information Official information concerning rules, interpretations, and information about the competition can be found on eurathlon website ( and the related eurathlon forum ( Please read all information available on the eurathlon website carefully especially this document! Rules (including this document) and scenarios are subject to change. Please check the eurathlon website for updates regularly. In case of any questions, participants can use the forum on the website. For further questions, interpretations and other information participants are advised to contact the organizers immediately. 1.4 Teams Teams may comprise any combination of students, faculty, industrial partners, or government partners with a maximum of 10 people per team. Students may be undergraduate and/or postgraduate students. Inter-disciplinary teams are encouraged. Members from industry, government agencies (or universities, in the case of faculty) can participate. 6

7 One member of the team must be designated as the Team Leader. The Team Leader, and only the Team Leader, will speak for the team during the competition. Team Funding and Support The cost of developing, fielding and insuring entered vehicles is the sole responsibility of the individual teams. The organizers will not provide funding for the purpose of eurathlon entry or participation. However, depending on the available budget there might be the possibility of getting a compensation for European Union (EU) students travel costs. Information will be available on the eurathlon website. 1.5 Course of action during a trial All teams that successfully completed the application procedure (see Section 2) and whose vehicle meets the necessary requirements (see section 4) will receive a time slot in each registered scenario. This will be done on a first come, first serve basis. The entry that declares its will to compete and pays the related registration fee first, will be able to select first its time slot. A general schedule for the event will be found on the eurathlon website. One team member, the Operator, is allowed to control (when applicable) the vehicle from a dedicated control station. 1-2 team members, the Technical assistants can accompany, on the organization support boat, their vehicle (when applicable), along the trials. 2 Application Procedure 2.1 Basic Requirements To register a team different steps have to be followed: Part 1 (deadline 1): Send an to Gabriele Ferri: ferri@cmre.nato.int, to express the intention to participate in the competition (the should include the "Team data form"). Fill and send the Team data form with team information (information about the team members), the features of the vehicle(s) and selection of the scenarios. Part 2 (deadline 2): Fill and send the Team Application form including the Letter of Intent (LOI) signed & Liability Statement. 7

8 Send the Scenario Application Paper (SAP) / video (optional) (see 7.6 for details) describing the vehicle(s). The video is not mandatory but will guarantee additional points to the team. SAPs and video will be reviewed by the eurathlon Scientific Advisory Board. Description of the acoustic messages exchanged between the Operator from the Control station and the underwater vehicles (if this kind of communication is used). Send the Photograph & Video release form signed. Payment of 500 EUR non-refundable registration fee. If a team registers for both SAUC-E14 and eurathlon14 only one registration fee is needed. 500 EUR nonrefundable registration fee will be retrieved from the deposit given for SAUC-E. A team that has submitted the application Part 1 before the deadline 1 and has received acknowledgement from the organizers becomes a eurathlon entrant. However, to remain an entrant and to successfully finish the application procedure, Part 2 has to be completed before the second deadline as well. The teams will receive an acknowledgement of their received applications. The needed forms and all deadlines will be published on the eurathlon website. Materials received after the respective deadlines cannot be considered and will be discarded by the organizers. The submission must be in English. The organisers reserve the right to limit the total number of entries that are allowed to compete by declaring the competition closed to new entries before the due date above. As with all official information, this announcement (should it be necessary) will appear on the official web site. Furthermore, the organisers reserve the right to not accept some entries on the base of the provided material. For instance, if the vehicle(s) are not considered enough mature/safe for the competition. In that case, the team registration fee will be refunded. All the material has to be sent via to: Gabriele Ferri NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation Viale S. Bartolomeo La Spezia, Italy ferri@cmre.nato.int 8

9 2.2 Registration Fee Each team that successfully completes the application procedure must pay a non-refundable registration fee of 500 EUR. This fee, together with additional donations for the eurathlon from sponsors and companies, builds a budget for prize money and selective travel support. Details about the travel support will be reported on the website. If a team registers both to SAUC-E14 and eurathlon14 only one registration fee is needed. 500 EUR non-refundable registration fee will be retrieved from the deposit given for SAUC-E. 2.3 Publication of materials For each team the following documents will be published on the eurathlon website: The Team Information, to enable contact from potential sponsors, other teams and media. The Scenario Application Papers (SAP) and the corresponding evaluation results for each selected scenario. Teams should state in the SAP if they do not want to have some information published on the website. For instance, writing the parts that must remain private in red color. All measures collected for evaluation purposes. Additionally, any information related to the participants awards will be published on the eurathlon website. 3 Schedule and venue The competition is planned to take place at CMRE, La Spezia, Italy, from the 29 th of September to the 3 rd of October The facility is a seawater basin bounded on three sides by a wall and enclosed by a net on the fourth side. The organizers will create two arenas (see Fig. 1). Competition will be held in Arena 1 while Arena 2 will be available during SAUC-E to exercise for some eurathlon tasks. The organisation will also allow the teams to use Arena 2 for exercise during eurathlon competitions on the base of the area availability. The Teams will be based in gazebos along the docks of the basin (see Fig. 1) and/or in Building 14 (a building close to the CMRE basin) in a cleared area to the left of the seaward entrance, see Fig. 2. Each team will be provided with tables and benches to work on a 220 V power and multiple sockets. Each table will have a fan and a LAN connection. During at least the first 3 days of SAUC-E14 (September 22-24, 2014) teams will be allowed to practice in the Arena 2 in some eurathlon tasks. In that arena there will be present 9

10 objects and underwater structures used for eurathlon14 scenarios. A participation in both SAUC-E and eurathlon is therefore warmly welcome by the organizers. A preliminary schedule of eurathlon 2014 is shown in the following table: Day Date Events 1 Sunday, 28 September Teams arrival and registration Vehicle safety inspection From 2 pm - Mandatory familiarization meeting Facilities for judges, observers, and media setup finished 2 Monday, September 29 Scenario 1 2 all day, arrival at 8:00 am, start at Tuesday, September 30 7:30 8:00 am competitors arrive 8:00 9:30 am Static Judging Scenario 1 trials 5:45 6:00 pm daily debrief Scenario 2 all day, arrival at 8:00 am, start at :30 8:00 am competitors arrive 8:00 9:30 am Static Judging Scenario 2 trials 5:45 6:00 pm daily debrief 4 Wednesday, October 1 Scenario 3 all day, arrival at 8:00 am, start at :30 8:00 am competitors arrive 8:00 9:30 am Static Judging Scenario 3 trials 5:45 6:00 pm daily debrief 5 Thursday, October 2 Scenario 4 all day, arrival at 8:00 am, start at :30 8:00 am competitors arrive 8:00 9:30 am Static Judging Scenario 4 trials 5:45 6:00 pm daily debrief 6 Friday, October 3 Scenario 5 all day, arrival at 7:30 am, start at Venue 7:30 8:00 am competitors arrive 8:00 9:30 am Static Judging Scenario 5 trials 7 pm Award Ceremony Tab. 1. eurathlon 2014 competition program draft. The competition will take place mainly in the tidal basin at the CMRE, La Spezia (see Fig. 1). The area can be viewed in Google earth at N, E. For the Long 2 The number of the scenarios in the table are not related to the scenarios presented later in the document. The specific scenarios to be held in the different days of the competition will be published on the website. 10

11 range autonomous navigation and Combined scenario an area outside the basin will be used. The basin dimensions are L=120 m by W=50 m, the water depth is mostly between 4 m and 5 m, decreasing at the inner end of the basin, up to about 2.5 m in the area of anomaly (see Fig. 1). The currents are negligible inside the basin and the water clarity can be seen from the available images of the competition web site. Close to the mid-water target (anomaly along the wall see later in the task description section) there is a source of fresh water coming out of the wall simulating the delta of a river. The AUV buoyancy compensation needs to be considered. Tidal range is about 0.2 m on a spring tide. Water temperature in September is around 20 C. The salinity can be measured and made available to the competitors if required. An average water density around 1025 Kg/m 3 has to be expected in the area. Water visibility varies between 1 and 2 metres depending on weather conditions. Magnetic compass behaviour is indeterminate at this stage. However we expect magnetic compasses to be useable 1 meter away from any structure. Each team will be allocated a preparation space and the following resources: Notes: ~6 square metres of clear floor space. Workbench/table/work surface. A tent to work outdoors. 220V mains electricity supply. The preparation area may be a tent, container or similar temporary structure/enclosure. If a team decides to provide their own structure (e.g. container) they must notify the competition officials well in advance of the competition. The teams will have access to the following communal facilities: Internet connection for computers. Further information will be provided to the teams on internet connection for the team s computers. Pools and possibly areas in the basin (in compatibility with the ongoing competitions). Notes: Teams must provide their own consumables, hand tools, drill bits and test equipment etc. All team members must be skilled in the operation of all tools and equipment utilised. 11

12 Only low voltage battery powered tools and equipment will be permitted within 2 metres of the pool. Fig. 1. CMRE s Sea Basin. Competition will be held in Arena 1. Arena 2 will contain areas in which the teams can exercise for eurathlon tasks during the SAUC-E and eurathlon competitions. Fig. 2. CMRE s Work area in Building 14 (a building of CMRE close to the water basin). 12

13 4 Vehicle Requirements - In each scenario, the teams can use an AUV (ROV 3 ), a USV or both an AUV (ROV 3 ) and an USV. All the proposed tasks can be solved by using an AUV. The USV, instead, can only solve partially the proposed scenarios (see the scenario descriptions for further details). However, the USV can collaborate with the AUV during all the scenarios via an acoustic link. - A team can register more than one vehicle of the same typology to the competition for their use in different scenarios. In each scenario, one vehicle per each typology can be used. - In some tasks it is possible to communicate via an underwater acoustic link with the underwater vehicles during the robot operations with the modalities detailed later in the scenario descriptions. Furthermore, in some scenarios it will be possible to communicate via a radio link with the USV. - The AUV cannot communicate via radio link with an operator neither emerge to use GPS, except than explicitly reported by the rules. - No physical link is admitted (wires or cables) to communicate/tele-operate the robots (except in the manipulation task). A USV and an AUV can communicate via wireless, no wire or cable between them is admitted (except in the manipulation task). - The USV MUST be provided of a radio tele-operation system. The tele-operation has to be present for safety reasons. Judges will be able to avoid a team using the USV if it is considered unsafe. Weight in air and size constraints (tested at launch): AUV: Maximum dimensions of the AUV: L=2 m x W=1 m x H=1 m Maximum weight: 90 Kg ROV (usable only for Interaction with underwater structures scenario) Maximum dimensions of the ROV: L=2 m x W=1.5 m x H=1.5 m Maximum weight: 120 Kg USV: 3 ROVs controlled via a cable are only allowed in the Interaction with underwater structures scenario. See later for scenario details. 13

14 Maximum dimensions of the USV: L=2.5 m x W=1.5 m x H=2 m Maximum weight: 90 Kg - Power constraints: All entries must be battery powered. All batteries must be sealed. The open circuit voltage of any battery in an entry may not exceed 60 VDC. - No materials (except for compressed air) may be released by the entry into the waters of the Arena. Any vehicle leaking a fluid will be deemed unsafe. All vehicles must have at least 2, maximum 4 clearly identified lifting points onto which standard commercial lifting gears may be easily attached / detached on land or in the water in a safe manner. - All underwater vehicles will be required to install strobe lights. - All entries must bear a clearly marked OFF switch that a diver can readily activate. The switch must disconnect the batteries from all propulsion components and devices in the AUV. Note that this does not have to kill the computer. Upon reactivation, the vehicle must return to a safe state (propellers do not start spinning). All AUVs must be positively buoyant when they have been shut off through the OFF switch. - Competition officials will be responsible for recovering lost vehicles. - The officials will suspend the operation of a vehicle at any time they deem that such action is required by safety or security considerations. - Teams will be required to submit technical descriptions of their entries to the officials in advance of the competition, with the goal of identifying potential safety concerns well in advance. When requested, such technical information submitted to the judges will be held in confidence until the end of the competition. Any vehicle deemed unsafe by the competition officials will be disqualified. 5 Regulations Pushing the development of revolutionary technologies is a key objective of eurathlon. Entrants are invited to contact the organizers regarding any rule that restricts their ability to demonstrate technical achievement and innovative solutions to intelligent marine vehicle behaviour. 5.1 Judging Team The Judging Team is a group of officials designated by the organizers as such. The Judging Team is the final authority on all matters referred to in the rules and on all matters affecting the operations of eurathlon. The Judging Team has the authority to modify the rules at any time. Reasons for modifications include, but are not limited to, the accommodation of promising but 14

15 unexpected technical approaches that would have been prohibited by the rules and the exclusion of approaches that seek to participate without demonstrating the desired technical achievement in vehicle behaviour that is the purpose of the event. The organizers will announce any modifications to the rules with an to all entrants and a corresponding statement on the eurathlon website. The Judging Team may revise the schedule of the trials and provide interpretation of the rules at any time and in any manner that is required. The Judging Team s decisions regarding the rules are based on a number of factors, such as safety, legal compliance, fairness, trial goals, environmental protection and efficient operations. Decisions of the Judging Team are final. 5.2 Logs Each team will produce a log file of the mission within around 60 minutes of the end of the run (unless additional available time explicitly stated in the rules). Log file has to clearly show the actions of the vehicle during the tasks. The format of the log file will be a CSV ASCII file of the format: TIME, LAT, LONG, DEPTH, ACTION Where: TIME is the time from the beginning of the mission in seconds LAT is the latitude in decimal degrees (WGS), e.g LONG is the longitude in decimal degrees (WGS), e.g DEPTH is the depth of the vehicle in meters; ACTION is a string communicating the action/state the vehicle is performing. Logged data will be plotted by plotting routines written by the organizing committee. This will be used to score the log file. Maps and images can be provided in the following formats: Portable Network Graphics (PNG) and/or JPEG (ITU-T T.81, ISO/IEC IS and, if needed, ITU-T T.84)

16 5.3 General rules: - The tasks composing one scenario must be fulfilled in sequence in one single mission from a start point requested by teams and agreed with the organization (see the definition of mission and task at the end of document). - The final scoring of the team in sea trials is the highest score realized in the different missions executed by the team during its time slot. - In some scenarios, the team has the possibility to stop attempting one task to pass to another one. In this case the vehicle is recovered and deployed to a starting point close to the area assigned to the next task. Also in this case, the final scoring of the team in sea trials is the highest score realized in the different missions executed by the team during its time slot. In general, if tasks are attempted in a single mission bonus points are rewarded to the team (see the scenarios description). - If the AUV and the ASV collect points during one mission the two scores are summed to produce the team score. - Only teams scoring some points in sea missions are eligible to be awarded with a podium position (first three positions). - The AUV MUST remain fully submerged. Surfacing at any time will result in termination of that mission. The only exceptions are Long range autonomous underwater navigation and the Combined scenario. In those cases, the AUV can emerge for GPS fixes. 5.4 Competition timing: - Each team will be allocated a time slot for their in-water run(s). 20 minutes before their allocated slot the team may move their vehicles to a specified position near to the launch point. - At the beginning of their allocated slot the team may move their vehicles to the launch point. - Each team will have a certain allotted time for their mission (different time for the different scenarios). The first 10 minutes are the preparation period. The team may request that the vehicle is deployed in the water during this 10-minute preparation period. The officials may reissue time-slots if the vehicle is not in the sea at the end of the preparation period. - Only the Judges can signal the start of operations. Only competition officials may deploy and recover the AUV/USV. This is to prevent unsafe actions in an attempt to speed the deployment and recovery processes. - A team may attempt multiple runs (missions) during the time-slot operations period. 16

17 - Only officials may retrieve a vehicle and return it to the dock. - One mission ends when any of the following occur: o The time slot ends. o The Judges order the end of a mission. o The Team Leader requests the end of the mission. 17

18 6 The challenge: scenarios General scenarios overview: The proposed tasks are part of a general scenario that simulates a Fukushima-like accident: An earthquake with a resulting tsunami dramatically damaged a coastal area in which a nuclear power plant is located. The plant facilities have reported major damages and some pipes are supposed to leak radioactive liquid into the sea. An intervention task force has been sent to the area of the accident with the objective to survey the area, to find out if some pipe is leaking contaminant chemical and, in that case, to intervene to solve the issue. Since the area of intervention has been ravaged by the earthquake and by radiation, the task force cannot get close to the disaster area. Only by deploying autonomous robots able to fulfill complex tasks in presence of debris and obstacles is possible for the team to intervene effectively on the disaster scene and at the same time limiting the danger for the operators health. 6.1 Long range autonomous underwater navigation Situation: The robots are deployed far from the disaster area and have to autonomously navigate underwater to reach the disaster area. The competition area will be a coastal water area free of boats and other floating obstacles. In this scenario one AUV must be used by the teams. Usable vehicles: A support USV can be used together with the AUV. USV can help the AUV by sending acoustically navigation data. No rope or cable is allowed between USV and AUV. USV may be totally autonomous or remotely controlled by the Operator from the shore (see later). Description: Before the deployment of the AUV, the Team Leader receives from the organization a set of waypoints (WGS decimal latitude and longitude coordinates). The objective for the AUV is to navigate underwater, autonomously and as fast as possible to reach the received waypoints. At each waypoint the AUV has to surface. A rubber boat of the organization will follow the AUV during its navigation. 18

19 Fig. 3: Scheme of the Long range underwater navigation scenario. The figure is indicative and more waypoints or different distances may be proposed by the organization. See Fig. 3 for a scheme of the scenario area. The figure is only indicative and does not represent the real structure of the trial field in the sense that a different number of waypoints or different distances may be proposed by the organization. - The AUV will be deployed at position A and has to reach as fast as possible (see Scoring paragraph) with autonomous underwater navigation the waypoints B and C and then coming back to the start position A by passing by the waypoint B. - The AUV should surface close to each assigned waypoint. At each surfacing, a GPS fix should be taken and logged, to be provided to the judges to estimate the navigation accuracy (see Scoring paragraph); this GPS fix can be used by the AUV navigation system. - The AUV could surface at any point during the navigation, to get GPS fixes (these surfacing actions not relative to the waypoints have to be clearly visible from the logs). For each of these surface points not relative to the waypoints reaching, the team will receive a point penalty. - The AUV has to navigate at a depth 2m (judges will control this on the logs provided by the team at the end of the mission). Navigation at lower depths will result in the cancellation of the score in the relative mission. Lower depths are allowed only during surfacing of the AUV for GPS fixes. 19

20 - The AUV has to navigate inside a safety corridor (200 m wide) (see Fig. 3). If the AUV exits the corridor, the current mission is aborted and a score penalty is given to the team. The score so far acquired in the mission is however kept. If the AUV exits 3 times from the corridor during the time slot, the time slot is considered terminated and no more missions are allowed. - Every intervention of the Technical Assistant to modify the trajectory of the AUV causes the mission to be aborted with a score penalty. The score so far acquired during the mission is kept. Safety measures: During the navigation one of the following safety measures has to be used by the team: A small float body painted in visible colour (e.g. orange), towed by the AUV via a thin rope. A safety rope from the rubber boat to the AUV. Team members during the trial: Up to 2 Technical Assistants, on board the organization rubber boat: They keep the safety rope and may touch the float towed body during particular AUV manoeuvres (e.g. surfacing) to avoid entanglement of the AUV propellers with the ropes. Can communicate with the Operator located on the shore. Operator (if present) located on the shore: He/she may communicate with the technical assistants. He/she may communicate via acoustic link with the AUV. In particular, he can receive from the AUV an estimate of its position and can decide to issue the command to surface to get a GPS fix. He/she can issue commands to the USV via a radio link. The USV can therefore be used to dispatch messages to the AUV via an acoustic link. No radio communication is allowed with the AUV. Possibility to see the area before the competition day: The team can request the organization to visit the area of the trial during SAUC-E week (22-24 September 2014). The team s vehicles can be used in the area. A time of 1 hour will be given to the team to map the seafloor in case of terrain-based navigation is desired. The waypoints will not be known at that time. 20

21 The Team Leader with the Technical Assistant(s) can inspect the area of the trial since 1 hour before the starting of the team s time slot. For instance, this time may be used to evaluate the water current speed. Timing: Time slot: 70 minutes. The scenario ends on decision of Judges/Team Leader or the time limit, whatever occurs first. Getting points: Points are gained (see the Scoring paragraph) based on: - The precision achieved when reaching the waypoints (surface locations). - How fast the waypoints are reached. - Acoustic/optical images of the area with evidence of terrain based navigation. - Evidence from logs of AUV navigation helped by acoustic data coming from USV. Score penalties: - Additional surfacing for GPS fixes. - Exit from the safety corridor. - Intervention of the Technical Assistant to modify the AUV trajectory. 21

22 6.2 Environmental survey of the accident area (mapping) Situation: The vehicles have to conduct a complete environmental survey of a specified area (accident site and its surroundings) to evaluate the situation and the state of the site. The survey area is a marina, dock area. A wall has to be inspected to find an anomaly and then an area has to be searched/mapped to localize OPIs. Usable vehicles: One AUV and/or an USV can be used. If both an AUV and a USV are used, final score will be the sum of the scores rewarded to both the vehicles. However, for the task Follow the wall and find an anomaly scores can only be achieved by an AUV. Description: The AUV/USV start from Start Position 1 and has to fulfill in sequence the following two tasks: Task 1 - Follow the wall and find an anomaly (this task can be fulfilled only by using an AUV. An USV can be used to support AUV operations): - The AUV has to follow the corner wall of the basin (Fig. 1). The objective is to maintain a position between 2m and 4m (<=4m and >=2m) from the wall, for the duration of the survey. The AUV can use feedback from forward-looking sonar, altimeter, side mounted DVL, video camera, to name just a few sensors in order to maintain a constant standoff from the wall. Furthermore, it can get acoustic information from the USV helping its navigation. The two walls will form a right angle corner, and could have some deviations from the expected vertical plane surface. - An anomalous object (orange buoy with a light on top of it) will be placed close to the North and East end of the basin wall, at a depth not exceeding 1.5 m. The target will be a soft reflective object (both acoustically and optically) and will be of a minimum size of 0.3 m x 0.3 m x 0.3 m, shown in Fig. 4. The target will be of a distinctive colour (orange) and approximately spherical in shape. The mid-water target will be tethered to the ground by a light rope and have a strong white light source on top of it. The light will be turned on and off in intervals of not less than 10 sec. 22

23 The AUV has to correctly stop and image, and maintain a distance from the anomaly. Evidence about this has to be provided through data and images in the logs to be rewarded with the relative points. Fig. 4. SAUC-E 2011 Bremen s buoy inspection: detection, initial lock on it, final tracking and circling around it. This kind of buoy will be the anomaly for Scenario 2 in eurathlon14. Task 2 - Area inspection (this task can be fulfilled by using an AUV and/or a USV): - An area of the basin (see Fig. 1) has to be monitored to localize some OPIs. The OPIs (see Fig. 5) will be soft reflective (both acoustically and optically) approximately spherical objects and they will be located at mid-water (between 0.5 m and 1.5 m altitude from the bottom). They will be tethered to the ground by a light rope. For what concerns the dimensions, they will fit in spheres with OD between 0.25 m to 0.5 m. OPIs will be orange in color with a black distinctive number (H between 100 mm and 150 mm, reproduced twice or thrice along the equatorial plane). Logs have to provide the evidence of detection of the OPIs. The vehicle can stop for some time in front of the OPI to demonstrate the correct detection. This to provide the judges with a clear method to confirm the detection. The area to be mapped will be provided to the teams. Fig. 5. Image of one OPI. The OD of the sphere is 30 cm. - During the mission the AUV has to stay completely submerged at a depth 1 m. 23

24 AUV/USV collaboration: The Task 1 - Follow the wall and find an anomaly must be fulfilled by the AUV. The USV can help the AUV during all the mission sending navigational helps. Furthermore, in the Task 2, it can directly get points mapping and inspecting the area. In this case, the points achieved by USV are summed with those rewarded by the AUV. Timing: Time slot: 60 min. The scenario ends on decision of Judges/Team Leader or the time limit, whatever occurs first. The data must be provided to the judges within one hour from the end of the team's slot to encourage the teams to push their system to produce good quality data if not in real-time as close to real time as possible. Execution/Implementation: - The operator located on a control station on the shore and with no line-of-sight on the area of the scenario can send some simple message to the vehicles: - It can inform the vehicles to switch the activity (for instance passing from Follow the wall and find an anomaly to Area inspection task). - These messages may be sent acoustically to the AUV, or via a radio link to the USV that may send them via an acoustic link to the AUV. Evidence of these messages have to be provided in the logs. The teams must inform the organization about what kind of messages they want to use. This must be done by deadline 2 (see Section 2.1). - No tele-operation is allowed for the USV except for safety reasons (or AUV) and will cause the disqualification of the team.. Gaining points: Points are gained (see the Scoring paragraph) based on: - Following the wall (they can be scored only by an AUV). - Detection and inspection of the anomaly (they can be scored only by an AUV). - Providing optical/acoustical images of the seafloor (3D model, optical or acoustical mosaicking). - Identifying and mapping the OPIs (in particular, position and sizes). The total number of present OPIs will be communicated to the teams. - Providing a map (optical/acoustical) of the area showing the OPIs. - 3D model of the OPIs. 24

25 - AUV search and navigation acoustically supported by USV. Score penalties: - USV going outside the competition area and relative manual or via radio link intervention (in this case tele-operation will be required for safety reasons). 6.3 Leak localisation and structure inspection Situation: A plume of water with an anomaly in the temperature has been detected. This is a sign that a pipe is leaking contaminated water into the sea. OPIs representing the plumes have to be localized and used to find an underwater piping assembly. Once the assembly has been localized, it has to be inspected to localize a stopcock (of a given shape). Usable vehicles: One AUV and/or an USV can be used. If both an AUV and a USV are used, final score will be the sum of the scores rewarded to both the vehicles. Description: The AUV/USV start from Starting Position 3 (Fig. 1), and has/have to fulfill in sequence the following tasks: Task 1 - Tracking the plume : - The vehicles have to follow a plume constituted of several OPIs to localize as fast as possible an underwater piping assembly. The OPIs (see Fig. 5) will be soft reflective (both acoustically and optically) approximately spherical objects and they will be located at mid-water (between 0.5 m and 1.5 m altitude from the bottom). They will be tethered to the ground by a light rope. For what concerns the dimensions, they will fit in spheres with OD between 0.25 m and 0.5 m. OPIs will be orange or white in color with a black distinctive number (H between 100 mm and 150 mm, reproduced twice or thrice along the equatorial plane). - The concept of how the OPIs are positioned is shown in Fig. 7. The number of the OPIs represents how close they are to the piping assembly along the plume 25

26 direction. Orange OPIs are at the middle of the plume while white ones are positioned at its border. One idea would be to execute a search (e.g. lawnmower path) trying to exiting and re-entering the plume to survey the area, get an assessment of the contaminated area and move towards the leaking piping assembly. This Task ends when the piping assembly has been localized or the Team Leader decides to abandon the task to attempt the Task 2. Task 2 - Inspecting the piping : - Perform the piping assembly inspection. The piping assembly will consist of cylindrical shapes, yellow in color, OD=0.5 m by L=1.5 m (shown in Fig. 6), arranged to form a 3D structure. The cylinders could be placed in the assembly both with horizontal and vertical axis, and could be stacked to increase the overall height. The assembly will be placed on the bottom, will not be moved during the competition (even if its position will be unknown until the time-slot of the first participant team). - Task 2 is to inspect this structure with an imaging sensor while maintaining a required stand-off distance from it. Task 2 objective is to thoroughly inspect the underwater structure. The AUV might start from any point of the structure, may maintain any distance from it (to be decided by the team based on the inspection sensors available, any sensors are allowed as long as they supply good quality data), and any path planning algorithm for moving around the structure will be allowed. - A stopcock handle will be present and has to be localized. One of the vehicle(s) has to stop at a distance between 2m and 4m (<=4m and >=2m) from the stopcock handle, and image it. The stopcock handle will be orange. Its description is reported in During the mission the AUV has to navigate completely submerged at a depth >= 1 m. - AUV/USV collaboration. The USV can help the AUV during all the mission sending navigational helps. 26

27 Fig. 6. Piping assembly structure. (Left) Frontal view. (Right) Lateral view. The structure, composed of yellow pipes, has the following dimensions: 2 m (front area) x 3 m x 1.8 m (height). Timing: Time slot: 60 min. The data must be provided to the judges within one hour from the end of the team's slot to encourage the teams to push their system to produce good quality data if not in real-time as close to real time as possible. The Team Leader may decide to pass to Task 2 without having discovered the underwater structure. The vehicle(s) in this case is recovered and relocated in proximity of the underwater structure. Execution/Implementation: - The Operator located in a control station on the shore and with no line-of-sight on the area of the scenario can send some simple message to the vehicles: - It can inform the vehicles to switch the activity (for instance passing from Follow the wall and find an anomaly to Area inspection task). - These messages may be sent acoustically to the AUV, or via a radio link to the USV that may send them via an acoustic link to the AUV. Evidence of these messages have to be provided in the logs. The teams must inform the organization for what kinds of message they want to use. This must be done by deadline 2 (see Section 2.1). - No tele-operation is allowed for the USV except that for safety reaons (or AUV) and will cause the disqualification of the team

28 Getting points: - If the two tasks are completed in a single mission, with the underwater structure localized by using the OPIs, bonus points will be awarded to the team. Fig. 7 Concept of leak source localisation task. The OPIs are positioned close to the seafloor and are characterized by different colours/numbers. (numbers represent the proximity of the OPI to the piping assembly). White OPIs represent the border of the plume. The vehicle will start from one position at the beginning of the plume. Points are gained (see the Scoring paragraph) based on: Task 1 - Tracking the plume : - Number/ of localized OPIs (amount of acquired information, e.g. colour, dimension and numbers). - Quality of a map of the area with the positioned OPIs. - Evidence from the log of a search operation performed going up the plume (the piping assembly is not found by chance). - Time to find the piping assembly. Task 2 - Inspecting the structure : - The points will be awarded based on the quality of the inspection data of the piping assembly. 100 % coverage of the structure is desired and the inspection data from any sensor (team's choice) will be accepted. If equipped with the sonar, the sonar mosaic or 3D structure reconstruction could provide a very good inspection product. 28

29 If equipped only with the video camera, in order to get a good quality inspection data of the entire structure, the team might need to perform several circles around the landmark at different depths. The accuracy of the AUV motion and the field of view of the sensor will be crucial to obtain a good data mosaic, 2.5 D photo mosaic, or a 3D image reconstruction of the structure. - If the vehicle(s) performs a search around the structure while maintaining the structure in the FOV of a sensor (even one 360 deg. pass will be sufficient to get a first partial score credit). The structure will have a mark (detectable both by sonar or video) in order for the judges to be certain that the inspection was performed around the entire structure. See the scoring table. - The vehicle(s) performs the inspection such that the 100 % coverage of the structure is obtained. - Points will be provided if mosaic and/or 3D reconstructed image of the structure is produced. - Detection with a vehicle of the stopcock. The vehicle has to stop and image the lever. The position of the lever has to be reported. In either task: - Evidence of AUV search and navigation acoustically supported by USV. Score penalties: - USV going outside the competition area and relative manual or via radio link intervention (in this case tele-operation will be required for safety reasons). 6.4 Interaction with underwater structures Situation: Once the leaking piping assembly has been detected, the vehicles have to intervene to stop the leaking. The underwater vehicle has to touch the underwater structure (for inspection), to close some stopcocks and has to manipulate a stick object. Usable vehicles: One AUV (or ROV) has to be used for the manipulation task. A USV can be used to support AUV operations. Description: 29

30 The AUV/ROV is deployed in front of the manipulation area (see Fig. 1) (at Starting point 3). The distance from the manipulation area will not be larger than 5 m. The vehicle has to navigate to reach the manipulation area. In the manipulation area a console, a horizontal panel (minimum dimensions L=0.5 m x W=0.5 m, white in colour), positioned on one pipe of the piping assembly structure, will be present and will contain a lever to be manipulated. Furthermore a pole+ring structure will be present in the proximity of the horizontal panel. The vehicle has to fulfill 3 tasks. In particular, it can accomplish the Task 1 and Task 2 in any order while Task 3 has to execute last, since it involves the surfacing of the robot. The tasks are: Task 1 - Touch the underwater structure : - The vehicle has to touch and remain in contact (for 1 minute) one of the cylindrical shapes forming the underwater piping assembly (see Fig. 6). Teams should pay particular attention to the cylindrical shape that may create difficulties in remaining into contact. - The point of contact between the vehicle and the structure could be either a manipulator or the lower part of the hull. Task 2 - Close the stopcock : - The vehicle has to simulate the operation of closing a valve, to stop a possible leaking from a underwater piping; - The vehicle should grab a cross-shaped handle (OD of the handle=10/20 mm, length of each cross arm = 400 mm, orange in colour, linked at its middle to a vertical axis shaft, thus operated on a horizontal plane), supported by the horizontal panel of the console (see Fig. 8). The vehicle should then turn the handle counterclockwise, by at least 90 degrees. - A negligible friction has to be expected to perform the handle rotation. 30

31 Fig. 8. (Left) Front view of the cross-shaped lever. The lever is linked to a vertical shaft supported by the horizontal plane of the console. The horizontal plane is fixed to one pipe of the underwater piping assembly structure. (Right) Frontal view of the lever. The lever has to be rotated counter-clockwise in the horizontal plane. Task 3 - Pick and place : - A pole (OD=10/20 mm, L= 0.8 m, orange in colour) with a ring on its top (ID 100/150 mm) (see Fig. 9, to be updated) will be inserted in a 400 mm deep, vertical axis hole, located in the horizontal panel of the console. The vehicle should catch, extract and recover the stick up to the surface, by grabbing it either along the vertical stick or at/in the upper ring. Fig. 9. Pole+ring structure for pick and place task. 31

32 Timing: Time slot: 70 (fully autonomous) / 55 (semi-autonomous) / 40 (tele-operated) min, depending on the degree of used autonomy. AUV/USV collaboration and AUV/ROV control modalities: In this scenario the vehicle can be connected to the shore via a cable. Three possible modalities are allowed: 1) Fully autonomous - AUV without a cable. In this case the AUV is autonomous and may communicate with a USV (if present) acoustically or with the Operator located on the shore. In this case more time is given in the time slot and more points are rewarded for the fulfilled tasks. 2) Semi-autonomous - It is only allowed to provide power and exchange telemetry data/commands with the underwater robot allowing for the existing Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) equipped with the smart software to be utilized. No human tele-operation is admitted. Sensory data can be received and high level commands can be sent by the operator, but low-level joystick driving is not allowed. 3) Tele-operation is allowed but only if the vehicle is not connected to the shore but to a surface vehicle acting as a comms relay for tele-operation. The surface vehicle in this case can be moored. In this case the time slot will be shorter and less points will be awarded to the vehicle for the accomplished tasks. In both cases, autonomy will be given more importance. Launch and recovery from the USV is not considered as part of the mission and can be performed offline. The control modality (with some implementation details, e.g. used messages etc.) for the underwater vehicle has to be reported in the SAP. Execution/Implementation: - The Operator is located on a control station on the shore and with no line-of-sight on the area of the scenario. The teams must inform the organization about what kind of messages they want to use in the Semi-autonomous modality. This must be done by deadline 2 (see Section 2.1). - Acoustic communication from the control station on the shore is always admitted. 32

33 - No tele-operation is allowed for the USV except for safety reasons (or AUV) and will cause the disqualification of the team. Getting points: - By fulfilling the manipulation tasks in as short time as possible. - Percentage of accomplishment of the task. - Autonomy is rewarded with more points and more available time. - Evidence about manipulation has to be provided by logs. Score penalties: - USV going outside the competition area and relative manual or via radio link intervention (in this case tele-operation will be required for safety reasons). 33

34 3.4. Combined scenario Situation: This is the more realistic scenario in which the previously described tasks must be accomplished in sequence. Starting from a location outside the basin, the vehicle has to enter the inner area. Then it has to inspect the area for mapping the present OPIs and survey the wall to find the mid-water anomaly. Finally it has to move to the manipulation area and grab and carry the pole/ring structure to the surface. Usable vehicles: More than one AUV can be used for the scenario, however a maximum of one AUV and one ASV can operatie in one particular task. A team can decide to change during the mission, at the end of one task, the current vehicle with another. In this case, a score penalty will be given to the team unless the case is automatic (e.g. if one vehicle is in standby and is activated by an acoustic message). In this case, the penalty does not apply. Alternatively, the current vehicle may be modified (e.g. by adding a cable for manipulation tasks). This counts as a vehicle change. A USV can be used to support AUV operations. USV can help the AUV by sending acoustically navigation data. No rope or cable is allowed between USV and AUV. USV may be totally autonomous or remotely controlled by the Operator from the shore (see later). Safety measures: As in Scenario 1, during the navigation one of the following safety measures should be used by the team: A small float body painted in visible color (e.g. orange) towed by the AUV via a thin rope. A safety rope from the rubber boat to the AUV. Once in the inner area of the basin, the Teams will be allowed to remove the safety rope from the vehicle (e.g. when surfacing to get a waypoint GPS fix). 34

35 Description: The AUV (with the USV) start from the Start Position 4 (see Fig. 10) and must fulfill a sequence of tasks. The AUV can always emerge to have a GPS fix without causing the mission to abort. However, this will imply a score penalty for the team. Fig. 10. Concept for Scenario 5. The red arrows show the path the AUV has to follow to accomplish the scenario. Surfacing with relative GPS fixes is allowed without any penalty only at some points, named waypoints in the following description. The waypoints must be reached in sequence. Surfacing at already reached waypoints will cause the score penalty for the team. The rules for each single task will be the same of those of the corresponding Scenario previously described. The only difference is that the USV is not rewarded with points for its actions. Task 1 - Autonomous underwater navigation : - The rules of this task are the same of Scenario 1 (see previous description). - The AUV has to reach waypoint 1 (with surfacing) and waypoint 2, and has to emerge. - The safety corridor will be at least 50 m wide. 35

36 Task 2 - Mapping the area and wall following/anomaly detection : - After reaching waypoint 2, the AUV has to move to the area where OPIs have been deployed. - A map of the OPIs has to be created. - The same rules as of those for Scenario 2 - Task 2 - Area inspection apply. - Then the AUV has to inspect the wall and localize the anomaly. Same rules as for Scenario 2 - Task 1 - Follow the wall and find an anomaly apply. Task 3 - Pick and place task : - After the wall inspection, the AUV has to reach waypoint 3 where it has to emerge for the last time. - Then it has to move to the manipulation area to accomplish Task 3 - Pick and place. Only the pole+ring object will be present in the area. - The mission ends with the AUV surfacing carrying the pole+ring object to surface. - During the mission the AUV has to navigate completely submersed with a depth 1 m. AUV/USV collaboration. The USV can help the AUV during all the mission by sending via an acoustic link navigational helps. No score is assigned for USV activities. Timing: Time slot: 75 min. The data must be provided to the judges within one hour from the end of the team's slot to encourage the teams to push their system to produce good quality data if not in real-time as close to real time as possible. Team members during the trial: Up to 2 Technical Assistants, on board the organization rubber boat: They keep the safety rope and may touch the float towed body during particular AUV manoeuvres (e.g. surfacing). This is meant to avoid entanglement of the AUV propellers with the ropes. Can communicate with the Operator located on the shore. Operator (if present) located on the shore: He/she may communicate with the technical assistants. 36

37 - He/she may communicate via acoustic link with the AUV. In particular, he/she can receive from the AUV an estimate of its position and can decide to issue the command to surface to get a GPS fix. Or he/she can inform the vehicle to switch the activity (for instance passing from Area inspection task to Follow the wall and find an anomaly or to go for the Pick and place task.). The teams must inform the organization about what kind of messages they want to use. This must be done by deadline 2 (see Section 2.1). He/she can issue commands to the USV via a radio link. The USV can therefore be used to dispatch messages to the AUV via an acoustic link. No radio communication is allowed with the AUV. Possibility to see the area before the competition day: The team can request the organization to visit the area of the trial during SAUC-E week (22-24 September 2014). A time of 1 hour will be given to the team to map the seafloor in case of terrain-based navigation is desired. The Team Leader with the Technical Assistant(s) can inspect the area of the trial since 1 hour before the starting of the team s time slot. For instance, this time may be used to evaluate the water current speed. Execution/Implementation: The tasks may be attempted separately. If one team decides to attempt only partial task, the vehicle can be moved to a particular starting point and from there the AUV can start its mission. In this case no bonus is given for chained tasks (see Getting points section). Specifically the starting point for each task are: - Long range navigation : Starting point 4 - Area survey: Waypoint 2 - Manipulation: Waypoint 3 Getting points: Points are gained (see the Scoring paragraph) based on: - Score factors as in the corresponding scenarios. - If the different tasks are done in a row, a bonus on the awarded points will be given. In all the tasks: 37

38 - Evidence of AUV search and navigation acoustically supported by USV. Score penalties: - Additional surfacing for GPS fixes. - Exit from the safety corridor. Intervention of the Technical Assistant to modify the AUV trajectory - USV going outside the competition area and relative manual or via radio link intervention (in this case tele-operation will be required for safety reasons). 7 Scoring The final scoring for a team is given by the weighted sum of the score achieved by the team in at sea trials and of the subjective measures. For weighted sum we mean that if A is the total scoring of at sea trials and B is the scoring of subjective measures the final score is computed as: A + B, where is a scaling factor different for each scenario. Subjective measures points are rewarded by the Scientific Advisory Board and the Judging Team. 7.1 Scenario 1: Long range autonomous underwater navigation Performance Measures Points Notes Time to reach the waypoints Precision to reach the waypoints Acoustic/optical images of the area with evidence of terrain based navigation Evidence from logs of AUV navigation helped by acoustic data coming from USV up to up to Additional fixes - Manual intervention of an operator on the AUV trajectory - Mission aborted 38

39 Exit from the safe corridor - Mission aborted 7.2 Scenario 2: Environmental survey of the accident area (mapping) Performance Measures Points Notes Follow Wall with the AUV Finding, stopping and imaging the anomaly Providing optical/acoustical images of the seafloor (3D model, optical or acoustical mosaicking) Identifying and mapping the OPIs (in particular, position and sizes and recognizing their number) Providing a map (optical/acoustical) of the area showing the OPIs. 3D model of the OPIs. In either task: Evidence of AUV search and navigation acoustically supported by USV 39

40 7.3 Scenario 3: Leak localisation and structure inspection Performance Measures Points Notes Number/ of localized OPIs of the plume (amount of acquired information, e.g. color, dimension and numbers Quality of a map of the area with the positioned OPIs. up to up to Evidence from the log of a movement going up the plume (the piping assembly is not found by chance). Time to find the underwater structure (not applicable to a team that attempts directly Task 2) Localizing the underwater structure AUV performs a search around the structure while maintaining the structure in the FOV of a sensor (even one 360 deg. pass will be sufficient) The vehicle(s) performs the inspection such that the 100 % coverage of the structure is obtained Points will be provided if mosaic and/or 3D reconstructed image of the structure is produced. Detection with a vehicle of the stopcock. The vehicle has to stop and image the lever. The position of the lever has to be reported. 40

41 7.4 Scenario 4: Interaction with underwater structures Performance Measures Teleoperated Semi- Autonomous Autonomous Notes Points Points Points Time of vehicle consecutively in touch with the underwater structure up to Points % of rotation of horizontal lever % of rotation of horizontal lever Time to rotate the horizontal lever Time to rotate the vertical lever % Picking and transporting the pole+ring object to the surface (picking and moving the pole is considered a task completed at 50%) 7.5 Scenario 5: Combined scenario Performance Measures Points Notes 41

42 Task 1 Time to reach the waypoints Precision to reach the waypoints Acoustic/optical images of the area with evidence of terrain based navigation Evidence from logs of AUV navigation helped by acoustic data coming from USV up to up to Additional fixes 4 - Manual intervention of an - Mission aborted operator on the AUV trajectory 2 Exit from the safe corridor / - Mission aborted competition area 2 Follow Wall with the AUV Task 2 Finding, stopping and imaging the anomaly Providing optical/acoustical images of the seafloor (3D model, optical or acoustical mosaicking) Identifying and mapping the OPIs (in particular, position and sizes and recognizing their number) Providing a map (optical/acoustical) of the area showing the OPIs D model of the OPIs. - Task 3 Localizing the manipulation area - 4 This applies to all the Tasks composing the scenario. 42

43 with the pole+ring structure % Picking and transporting the pole+ring object to the surface (picking and moving the pole is considered a task completed at 50%) In all the tasks: - - Evidence of AUV search and navigation acoustically supported by USV Subjective measures Scenario Application Paper: Each team is required to submit a SAP that describes the design of their entry, the rationale behind their design choices and how the teams want to approach the proposed scenarios. This paper can be no more than 12 pages (including all figures, references, and appendices but excluding Resumes). The paper must include the following sections: Executive Summary Introduction Description (Physical, autonomy and mission planning) Description of how the selected scenario(s) is/are addressed Innovation Financial Summary (1 page on income and expenditure of the team to organize the participation to the competition) Risk Assessment The paper must be provided in electronic format (pdf preferred). The format shall be printable on A4 sheets, margins of at least 25 mm all sides, 10 point font or larger. The SAP will be evaluated as described in the section on scoring. A video diary will be accepted as a supplement to the SAP. The video diary should focus on significant events during your preparations for the event. For example, team meetings, 43

44 designing, building, testing etc. The video will be collated to form part of a competition video and / or displayed during the event. Resumes of all team members should be appended to the journal paper. The SAP and video will be reviewed by the Scientific Advisory Board. Static judging: Each entry will be subject to static judging. Each team will be requested to give a 15 minute presentation which will be followed by questions. The presentations should be delivered by the student component (if any) of the team. The Judges will evaluate each entry on technical merit, safety and craftsmanship, as described below. These presentations will be scheduled in advance. Teams are also strongly encouraged to make a poster describing the entry. Representatives of the press and of other organisations will be encouraged to visit each team. Subjective Measures Tot SAP (J) + Video (V) Technical Merit (From SAP, Static Judging + Observations) Craftsmanship (From SAP, Static Judging ) Safety of Design (From SAP, Static Judging ) Innovation (From SAP, Static Judging ) Discretionary Points (Awarded After Last Competition Run) 200 (J) 100 (V) SAP, These points are for the production of the SAP, ensuring all sections are included and the amount of thought and care that has gone into its production. These points are assigned by the Scientific Advisory Board. The Scientific Advisory Board assigns also the points for the video. Technical Merit, The vehicle will be assessed on overall design, software algorithms, mission planning, design choices addressing the problem and construction. 44

45 Craftsmanship, These considerations will account for any components of the design that are or could be (in the judges opinion) commercially available or do not include a significant contribution by team members. In other words, if you use a well-built, well-designed, off-theshelf computer, your team does not get points for the computer s good technical design, etc. You will get points in the Technical merit section for selecting a computer that is well-suited to the engineering needs of the design, in the opinion of the judges. Efficient and novel use of cheap every day items will also gain points. Safety of Design, Points will be awarded for knowledge and resolution of potential hazards in the vehicle s design. Judges will be looking for the teams recognition of potential hazards and how these hazards have been removed or managed in both the design choices and final vehicle. Innovation What makes your vehicle unique? This section is looking for the new ideas, be it something built specifically for the competition or a novel use of existing equipment. 45

46 8 Robotic kits Underwater robotics is a domain where platforms, sensors and actuators are inherently expensive. Furthermore, there are only few really capable platforms that are open enough to be used for research and mature enough to be reliable. The eurathlon Consortium has procured core AUV hardware (propulsion, motor controllers, power components, housings) to provide AUV kits to selected participant teams. A call will be open soon (see the project website) to loan three AUVs to three applicant teams. The successful teams (selected per Consortium discretion through an analysis of the presented proposals describing the team expertise and the algorithms intended to be used) will obtain the AUV kit for 2014 sea competition and based on their performance either retain the kit or return it, so the kit can be given to another team (per Consortium s decision). A study of the vehicles performance and features needed for eurathlon competition led to the definition of the platform required features: Standard open interfaces using ROS (Robot Operating System), a middleware very popular in the robotics community. Core AUV hardware (propulsion, motor controllers, power components, housing). Hovering capability. Low power consumption. One (working) day endurance. Remotely programmable. High degree of flexibility/diversity (sensors, missions, operating mode). The platforms will be provided to the selected teams on the base of the quality of their application. Giving a reliable platform to the teams has a twofold objective: to enable teams not expert in the sea domain to enter the competition and to shift the focus for the team from the engineering aspects (fixing hardware problems, etc.) to the cognitive and algorithmic point of views. Furthermore, additional expensive sensors (sonars, DVLs, modems) will be loaned to the teams that cannot afford them but only when they demonstrate basic AUV functionality and camera navigation to the consortium. 46

47 The platforms have been selected after a detailed analysis of the market and the available possibilities and budget. Three SPARUS II manufactured by the University of Girona were procured. The platforms will be ready in April 2014 and will be loaned to the teams. SPARUS II CAD drawings are visible in the following picture (Fig. 11) Fig. 11. (Left) CAD drawing of the SPARUS II. (Right) Front section that will be configurable by the teams. The vehicle has the following features: Length: 1.6 m. Hull diameter: 230 mm. Max width: 460 mm. Weight in air: 52 kg. Maximum depth: 200 meters. Energy: 1.4 kwh Li-Ion batteries. Power control: magnetic switch. Endurance: 8-10 hrs. Max surge velocity: 3-4 knots. Propulsion system: 3 thrusters. Degrees of freedom: surge, heave, yaw. Structure: modular aluminium and acetal hull. Deployment: central hook for crane, front hook for towing and back hook for trolley. Included accessories: battery charger, umbilical cable, wireless access point, 2 sets of skin for payload area, trolley for deployment and transportation box. The AUV onboard computer has the following features: Computer: embedded computer with solid state disk and RS232 serial ports. LAN: Ethernet switch with wireless access point. Software: Linux Ubuntu and ROS. 47