[Editors] MIT: Kayaks adapted to test marine robotics

[Elizabeth Thomson]

MIT News Office
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room 11-400
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
Phone: 617-253-2700
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www

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MIT: Kayaks adapted to test marine robotics
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For Immediate Release
MONDAY, AUG. 7, 2006
Contact: Elizabeth A. Thomson, MIT News Office
Phone: 617-258-5402
Email: thomson at mit.edu

PHOTOS, VIDEO AVAILABLE

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--MIT researchers are working toward the day when a 
team of robots could be put into action like a team of Navy SEALs - 
doing such dangerous work as searching for survivors after 
devastating hurricanes or sweeping harbors for mines.

Working in labs that resemble machine shops, these engineers are 
taking small steps toward the holy grail of robotics - cooperative 
autonomy - making machines work together seamlessly to complete tasks 
with a minimum of human direction.

The tool they're using is the simple kayak.

The researchers are taking off-the-shelf, $500 plastic kayaks and 
fitting them with onboard computers, radio control, propulsion, 
steering, communications and more to create Surface Crafts for 
Oceanographic and Undersea Testing (SCOUTs).

Much of the technology being tested is ultimately intended for use in 
underwater robots, or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), but 
testing software on AUVs can easily become a multimullion-dollar 
experiment.

"I want to have master's students and Ph.D. students that can come 
in, test algorithms and develop them on a shoestring budget," said 
Associate Professor John J. Leonard of mechanical engineering. 
Leonard, together with MIT research engineer Joseph Curcio of 
mechanical engineering and an intern, Andrew Patrikalakis, unveiled 
SCOUT last fall in a paper for the IEEE Oceans Conference.

SCOUT is an inexpensive platform that eliminates the necessity of 
tackling one of the more difficult problems posed by AUVs - 
communicating under water.

"One of the biggest challenges underwater is that we can't transmit 
electromagnetic radiation a long distance," Leonard said.

Operating on the surface means that SCOUTs can take advantage of such 
technology as wireless Internet and global positioning systems (GPS), 
which don't work underwater. Researchers are thus free to focus on 
fine-tuning other necessary robot functions, such as navigation - all 
with the goal of creating a team that works so seamlessly that a lot 
of communication isn't necessary.

"In order to be effective with robots in the water, you'd best not 
have a plan that relies on a lot of communication," Curcio said. "To 
be effective with a fleet of vehicles and have them do something 
intelligent, what you really need to do is have the software be so 
robust that communication between the vehicles can be kept to a 
minimum."

Curcio, Leonard and Patrikalakis have built 10 SCOUTs so far, four of 
which are owned by the Naval Underwater Warfare Center in the care of 
Michael Benjamin, a visiting scientist in MIT's Department of 
Mechanical Engineering. The SCOUTs are being used in a variety of 
collaborative efforts at MIT. As Leonard and Curcio explained, SCOUT 
was designed to be a platform upon which others can build.

"The analogy was born that we should build it like the pickup truck. 
All we have to do is make it so that it drives with a known set of 
controls, or interfaces, and has a payload capability," Curcio said. 
"And the users, once they learn how to operate it - like a driver 
gets in and out of a car - should be able to easily get on board with 
another one even though the payload may change."

Software developed on SCOUT may someday help AUVs search the sea 
bottom for plane wreckage or allow kayaks to find shipwreck survivors.

"We keep thinking of new applications," Leonard said.

This research was funded by the Office of Naval Research and the MIT 
Sea Grant College Program. Acoustic communications hardware for the 
project was provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

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Elizabeth A. Thomson
Assistant Director, Science & Engineering News
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
News Office, Room 11-400
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
617-258-5402 (ph); 617-258-8762 (fax)
<thomson at mit.edu>

<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www>
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