Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) designed autonomous robots to take the risk out of deep-sea exploration.
After testing their bot, the researchers plan to unveil it at the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling in Israel in June. Whereas robots typically need pre-determined actions written by programmers, the MIT team's autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) are assigned specific tasks, making their decisions simpler.
For example, one robot is designated as a leader and therefore given charge of more important matters that affect the group collectively. While the AUVs have a mission in mind, they are designed to be able to respond to the unpredictable.
"We wanted to show that these vehicles could plan their own missions, and execute, adapt, and re-plan them alone, without human support," Brian Williams, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT who serves as principal developer of the mission-planning system, said in a press release. "With this system, we were showing we could safely zigzag all the way around the reef, like an obstacle course."
Moreover, the AUVs are assigned specialized tasks like navigation and on-the-fly fixes.
"We can give the system choices, like, 'Go to either this or that science location and map it out,' or 'Communicate via an acoustic modem, or a satellite link,'" Williams said. "What the system does is, it makes those choices, but makes sure it satisfies all the timing constraints and doesn't collide with anything along the way. So it has the ability to adapt to its environment."
In addition to being safer for scientists who want to explore dangerous situations deep underwater, the AUVs can go places humans would physically be unable to reach.
"If you look at the ocean right now, we can use Earth-orbiting satellites, but they don't penetrate much below the surface," Williams said in the release. "You could send sea vessels which send one autonomous vehicle, but that doesn't show you a lot. This technology can offer a whole new way to observe the ocean, which is exciting."
