Advances In Unmanned Marine Vehicles

Unmanned marine vehicles (UMVs) include autonomous underwater vehicles, remotely operated vehicles, semi-submersibles and unmanned surface craft. Considerable importance is being placed on the design and development of such vehicles, as they provide cost-effective solutions to a number of littoral, coastal and offshore problems. This book highlights the advanced technology that is evolving to meet the challenges being posed in this exciting and growing area of research.

Unmanned marine vehicles (UMVs) is a collective term which can be used to describe autonomous underwater vehicles, remotely operated vehicles, semisubmersibles, and unmanned surface craft. These days there is considerable interest being shown in UMVs by the military, civilian and scientific communities for undertaking designated missions whilst either operating autonomously and/or in cooperation with other types of vehicle. More and more worldwide importance is also being placed on the design and development of such vehicles as they are capable of providing cost effective solutions to a number of littoral, coastal and offshore problems. This new book on the subject will cover topics including Navigation guidance and control of the following unmanned marine vehicles: remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), ncluding gliders, autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs).

Unmanned marine vehicles (UMVs) is a collective term commonly used to describe autonomous underwater vehicles, remotely operated vehicles, semi-submersibles, and unmanned surface craft. UMVs are heavily used in the military, civilian, and scientific communities for undertaking designated missions whilst either operating autonomously and/or in co-operation with other types of vehicles. Advanced marine vehicles are increasing their capabilities and the degree of autonomy more and more in order to perform more sophisticated maritime missions. Remotely operated vehicles are no longer cost-effective since they are limited by economic support costs, and the presence and skills of the human operator. Alternatively, autonomous surface and underwater vehicles have the potential to operate with greatly reduced overhead costs and level of operator intervention. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS); these include a UAV, a ground-based controller, and a system of communications between the two. Compared to manned aircraft, UAVs were originally used for missions too "dull, dirty or dangerous" for humans. While they originated mostly in military applications, their use is rapidly expanding to commercial, scientific, recreational, agricultural, and other applications such as policing, peacekeeping and surveillance, product deliveries, aerial photography, agriculture, smuggling, and drone racing. Civilian UAVs now vastly outnumber military UAVs, with estimates of over a million sold by 2015, so they can be seen as an early commercial application of Autonomous Things, to be followed by the autonomous car and home robots. Nowadays, UMVs and UAVs are playing an increasingly important role in both controlling community and engineering applications. For example, UMVs and UAVs provide more efficient ways to execute various challenging tasks. However, these systems are usually featured with dynamics coupling, actuator saturation, underactuated structure, time-varying disturbance, etc., thereby resulting in great challenges and difficulties in system analysis and controller design. Recently, by employing intelligent approaches, advanced control methodologies for unmanned systems have been rapidly developed. Note that the dynamic environment is usually changing and the unmanned systems must adapt themselves accordingly. In this context, on one hand, more efforts should be focused on the methodology of the learning system. For example, fast adaptation and self-organizing capability are essentially required. On the other hand, advanced analysis tools should be deployed to enhance the control performance. Towards this end, human-like intelligence should be integrated tightly with nonlinear design for complex control tasks of autonomous systems. The main objective of this edited book is to address various challenges and issues pertinent to the intelligent control of UMVs and UAVs. (Nova)

Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land is our fourth textbook in a series covering the world of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CUAS). (Nichols R. K., 2018) (Nichols R. K., et al., 2019) (Nichols R. , et al., 2020)The authors have expanded their purview beyond UAS / CUAS systems. Our title shows our concern for growth and unique cyber security unmanned vehicle technology and operations for unmanned vehicles in all theaters: Air, Sea and Land - especially maritime cybersecurity and China proliferation issues. Topics include: Information Advances, Remote ID, and Extreme Persistence ISR; Unmanned Aerial Vehicles & How They Can Augment Mesonet Weather Tower Data Collection; Tour de Drones for the Discerning Palate; Underwater Autonomous Navigation & other UUV Advances; Autonomous Maritime Asymmetric Systems; UUV Integrated Autonomous Missions & Drone Management; Principles of Naval Architecture Applied to UUV's; Unmanned Logistics Operating Safely and Efficiently Across Multiple Domains; Chinese Advances in Stealth UAV Penetration Path Planning in Combat Environment; UAS, the Fourth Amendment and Privacy; UV & Disinformation / Misinformation Channels; Chinese UAS Proliferation along New Silk Road Sea / Land Routes; Automaton, AI, Law, Ethics, Crossing the Machine - Human Barrier and Maritime Cybersecurity.Unmanned Vehicle Systems are an integral part of the US national critical infrastructure The authors have endeavored to bring a breadth and quality of information to the reader that is unparalleled in the unclassified sphere. Unmanned Vehicle (UV) Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land discusses state-of-the-art technology issues facing U.S. UV system researchers / designers / manufacturers / testers. We trust our newest look at Unmanned Vehicles in Air, Sea, and Land will enrich our students and readers understanding of the purview of this wonderful technology we call UV.

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have been used in military operations for more than 60 years, with torpedoes, cruise missiles, satellites, and target drones being early examples.1 They have also been widely used in the civilian sector-for example, in the disposal of explosives, for work and measurement in radioactive environments, by various offshore industries for both creating and maintaining undersea facilities, for atmospheric and undersea research, and by industry in automated and robotic manufacturing. Recent military experiences with AVs have consistently demonstrated their value in a wide range of missions, and anticipated developments of AVs hold promise for increasingly significant roles in future naval operations. Advances in AV capabilities are enabled (and limited) by progress in the technologies of computing and robotics, navigation, communications and networking, power sources and propulsion, and materials. Autonomous Vehicles in Support of Naval Operations is a forward-looking discussion of the naval operational environment and vision for the Navy and Marine Corps and of naval mission needs and potential applications and limitations of AVs. This report considers the potential of AVs for naval operations, operational needs and technology issues, and opportunities for improved operations.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of marine control system design related to underwater robotics applications. In particular, it presents novel optimization-based model predictive control strategies to solve control problems appearing in autonomous underwater vehicle applications. These novel approaches bring unique features, such as constraint handling, prioritization between multiple design objectives, optimal control performance, and robustness against disturbances and uncertainties, into the control system design. They therefore form a more general framework to design marine control systems and can be widely applied. Advanced Model Predictive Control for Autonomous Marine Vehicles balances theoretical rigor – providing thorough analysis and developing provably-correct design conditions – and application perspectives – addressing practical system constraints and implementation issues. Starting with a fixed-point positioning problem for a single vehicle and progressing to the trajectory-tracking and path-following problem of the vehicle, and then to the coordination control of a large-scale multi-robot team, this book addresses the motion control problems, increasing their level of challenge step-by-step. At each step, related subproblems such as path planning, thrust allocation, collision avoidance, and time constraints for real-time implementation are also discussed with solutions. In each chapter of this book, compact and illustrative examples are provided to demonstrate the design and implementation procedures. As a result, this book is useful for both theoretical study and practical engineering design, and the tools provided in the book are readily applicable for real-world implementation.

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of stability, stabilization, and fault detection in networked control systems, with a focus on unmanned marine vehicles. It investigates the challenges of network-based control in areas like heading control, fault detection filter and controller design, dynamic positioning, and cooperative target tracking. Communication networks in control systems can induce delays and dropouts, so the book presents the importance of stability analysis, stabilize, and fault detection. To help readers gain a deeper understanding of these concepts, the book provides fundamental concepts and real-world examples. This book is a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners working in the field of network-based control for unmanned marine vehicles.

Robotic marine vessels can be used for a wide range of purposes, including defence, marine science, offshore energy and hydrographic surveys, and environmental surveys and protection. Such vessels need to meet a variety of criteria: they must be able to operate in salt water, and to communicate and be controlled over large distances, even when submerged or in inclement weather. Further challenges include 3D navigation of individual vehicles, groups or squadrons. This book covers the current state of research in navigation, modelling and control of marine autonomous vehicles, and deals with various related topics, including collision avoidance, communication, and a range of applications. It provides valuable insights for an audience of researchers, academics and postgraduate students interested in autonomous marine vessels, robotics, and electrical and automobile engineering.