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ATLAS ELEKTRONIK GmbH 2007-05-15 15:01:38
ATLAS ELEKTRONIK and the GREX-Project: Co-ordination and Control of
Co-operating Unmanned Systems
Today scientific and military users demand systems composed of multiple
underwater vehicles. In such a swarm each vehicle plays the role of a
sophisticated node with sensor, processing and communication
capabilities within a network – thus combining the properties of
heterogeneous systems in a team. “GREX�? - the Latin word for a herd or
flock - indicates the focus of a European research project which started
in June 2006. The major goal is the creation of a conceptual framework
and middleware to coordinate a flock of heterogeneous unmanned marine
vehicles in order to achieve their mission goal in an optimised manner.
Currently the exploitation of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) is
under rapid development. For many navies one shot mine disposal vehicles
are becoming standard, first Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are
introduced for remote sensing such as exploratory/reconnaissance
operations to name only two examples. Modern concepts of naval mine
warfare introduce ships with a variety of different UUVs which might be
deployed at the same time. The resulting requirements are that the
management of a group of heterogeneous vehicles will be essential for
the future mine warfare theatre.
Similar needs come from the civil community: offshore geologists, marine
researchers or underwater archaeologists could benefit from the use of
multiple vehicles. They allow surveying wider areas in less time,
simultaneously obtaining time and space resolutions that are otherwise
unachievable. Combining pre-existing vehicles into a team will make
research more effective and will lead to completely new applications.
To coordinate and handle such groups of vehicles the research project
GREX has been created within the 6th framework of the European
Commission. The three years project started in June 2006 and will end in
June 2009. The Consortium is composed of 9 Partners which share the work
under coordination of the German company ATLAS ELEKTRONIK GmbH. GREX
started with a short definition phase. The Instituto do Mar at the
University of the Azores, which is dedicated to biological research in
the underwater domain, is in charge to define scenarios and
requirements, from which development and trials will be deducted.
Scientific Methodical Analysis and Research are mainly be performed by
the Institute of Robotics of the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST)
(Portugal) and the Technische Universität Ilmenau, Faculty of Computer
Science and Automation in Germany. Both Institutes combine their
theoretical backgrounds to achieve the ambitious goals.
The Bulgarian SME Sciant, experts in embedded systems and
communications, develops the middleware for inter-process and
inter-vehicle communication as well as for dynamic networking.
The French research institute Ifremer with its operational experience in
underwater communication leads the specifications of communication in
the GREX system and provides their AsterX-Vehicle for evaluative tests.
To test the functionality of the joint modules, an overall simulation is
developed by Seebyte Ltd.,UK. They are also responsible to create the
GUI for planning and analysis of the coordinated mission. The
scientific/technical part of the project, described above, is framed by
an intensive marketing.
INNOVA uses their experience in market studies and exploitation plans
for GREX. MC Marketing Consulting coordinates the dissemination and
promotion during the project and prepares the web presentation.
(http://www.grex-project.eu).
The main goal of the project is to achieve a first level of distributed
“intelligence�? through dependable embedded systems that are
interconnected and cooperate towards the coordinated execution of tasks.

Thus the project will witness the development of theoretical methods and
practical tools for multiple vehicle cooperation, bridging the gap
between concept and practice. The technology developed must be on one
hand sufficiently generic in order to interface pre-existing
heterogeneous systems. On the other hand it must be sufficiently robust
to cover problems caused by faulty communications. The objectives of the
GREX project are well rooted in an in-depth analysis of potential user
requirements. There are three types of mission scenarios which are the
basis for discussion and specifications. These mission scenarios
envisioned take into account challenging problems in the field of marine
science. Scenario 1 is the quest for hydrothermal vents, scenario 2
deals with download data from tagged fish and scenario 3 addresses
marine habitat mapping.
The project is divided into three major phases which are characterized
by the main activities:
1. Specifications and scientific research,
2. Applied research and implementation,
3. Successive trials and final demonstration of results
Currently the project approaches the end of the first phase. Most
specifications are finalized and research on the challenging topics is
in full progress. Beneath methodical research, hardware tests are
performed which includes e. g. trials of different acoustic underwater
modems. Furthermore, a system simulator is under development which
allows testing various software items during the coming development.
The final result will comprise a user interface, based on the SeeTrack
software, a common control system for coordinated mission execution and
control, a team based navigation system and a sophisticated
communication system which takes into account needs for dynamic
networking. All control and navigation issues have to be realized under
constraints of the challenging underwater environment which allows only
sparse communication. At the end of the project in 2009, life sea trials
will be performed to validate the results achieved.
For more information contact:
ATLAS ELEKTRONIK GmbH
Sebaldsbruecker Heerstr. 235
28309 BREMEN
Germany
Tel: +49 421 457-02
Fax: +49 421 457-3699
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