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Autonomous Amphibious Robot Navigation Through the Littoral Zone

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Autonomous Amphibious Robot Navigation Through the Littoral Zone AUTONOMOUS AMPHIBIOUS ROBOT NAVIGATION THROUGH THE LITTORAL ZONE by Mark Borg A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in Mechanical Engineering The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science Mechanical Engineering University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Ontario Tech University) Oshawa, Ontario, Canada March 2021 © Mark Borg, 2021 THESIS EXAMINATION INFORMATION Submitted by: Mark Borg PhD in Mechanical Engineering Thesis title: AUTONOMOUS AMPHIBIOUS ROBOT NAVIGATION THROUGH THE LITTORAL ZONE An oral defense of this thesis took place on March 4, 2021 in front of the following examining committee: Examining Committee: Chair of Examining Committee Dr. Amirkianoosh Kiani Research Supervisor Dr. Scott Nokleby Examining Committee Member Dr. Remon Pop-Iliev Examining Committee Member Dr. Haoxiang Lang University Examiner Dr. Jing Ren External Examiner Dr. Brad Buckham, University of Victoria The above committee determined that the thesis is acceptable in form and content and that a satisfactory knowledge of the field covered by the thesis was demonstrated by the candidate during an oral examination. A signed copy of the Certificate of Approval is available from the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. ii ABSTRACT The majority of autonomous robotic research is performed on aerial and land based robots. Robots that operate above or below the water are less prevalent in the re-search. This is due to the complexity of the environment that water introduces to a robot. An outdoor, natural setting, which includes water, will present multiple, fluctuating variables to the robot. These variables can include, but are not limited to, temperature, height, location, amount of flotation, causticity, and clarity. An amphibious robot must have a sensor suite that is able to give an understanding of the robot's surroundings to allow the navigation algorithm to autonomously plan an obstacle free route on land and through the water while adapting to the fluctuation of the above mentioned variables. The area close to and including the shoreline is called the littoral zone and this area is notoriously complex to navigate. An approach for generating an obstacle free path through the littoral zone is presented. Utilizing the Robotic Operating Software (ROS) framework an algorithm to achieve autonomous navigation through the littoral zone is developed. The output of the algorithm is to present an obstacle free path for an amphibious robot to navigate through the littoral zone which is one of the most difficult environments for a robot. The Autonomous Amphibious Robot (AAR) was designed and built to test the proposed algorithm. Test results for the AAR on both land and in the littoral zone verify the methodology. The proposed algorithm could be used on a variety of amphibious robots. Keywords: autonomous; amphibious; littoral; robot; algorithm iii AUTHOR’S DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis consists of original work of which I have authored. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I authorize the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Ontario Tech University) to lend this thesis to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Ontario Tech University) to reproduce this thesis by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my thesis will be made electronically available to the public. Mark Borg iv STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTIONS Part of the work described in Chapter 2, 3, and 4 has been published as: Lau B.; Puccini L., Dobrescu O., Mezil A., 2014/2015 UOIT Capstone Design Project Report, 2015. Borg, M., Nokleby, S. B., Puccini, L., Mezil, A., Lau, B., Dobrescu, O., Idris, J., Chan, A., Cain, C., Long, K., Thaker, K., and Lam, K., 2016, “Design, Development, and Preliminary Testing of an Autonomous Amphibious Robot,” in Proceedings of the 2016 CSME International Congress, June 26-29, Kelowna, Canada, 6 pages. Borg, M. and Nokleby, S. B., 2019, “Proposed Algorithm for Autonomous Navigation in the Littoral Zone for Amphibious Robots,” in Proceedings of the 2019 CCToMM Symposium on Mechanisms, Machines, and Mechatronics, May 16-17, Montreal, Canada, 11 pages. I performed the majority of the work and writing of the two conference manuscripts. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Scott Nokleby, for his ongoing support and guidance in the completion of this thesis. Thanks to my wife for her support over the 26 years it took me to reach this goal. Thanks to my children Marin and Reid for their support. Thanks to my Mother who gave me her interest in science and to my late Father who taught me to use logic to problem solve. Thanks to my MARS lab mates especially Florentin for his ability of teaching an old dog new tricks. And thanks to General Motors for the financial support to complete this educational journey. vi Table of Contents Thesis Examination Information ii Abstract iii Author’s Declaration iv Statement of Contributions v Acknowledgements vi Table of Contents vii List of Figures x Glossary xiii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Contributions . 2 1.2 Outline . 3 2 Literature Review 4 2.1 Modes of Locomotion . 8 2.2 Navigation of Amphibious Robots . 13 2.3 Sensing Systems . 19 2.4 Autonomous Underwater Robots . 22 2.5 Communication and Guidance . 25 2.6 Marine Surface Robots . 29 vii 2.7 Autonomous Operation . 35 2.8 Multi-Axle Suspension . 40 2.9 Literature Review Findings . 45 3 Littoral Zone Path Planning Algorithm 47 3.1 Preliminary Testing . 55 3.2 Image Testing . 58 3.3 Summary . 61 4 Prototype System 63 4.1 Functional Requirements . 64 4.2 Physical Requirements . 65 4.3 First Concept . 66 4.4 Second Concept. 67 4.5 Third Concept . 69 4.6 Fourth Concept . 70 4.7 Fifth Concept . 71 4.8 Sixth Concept . 72 4.9 Seventh Concept . 73 4.10 Eighth Concept . 75 4.11 Ninth Concept . 76 4.12 Tenth Concept . 77 4.13 Eleventh Concept. 77 viii 4.14 Proof of Concept Testing. 78 4.15 Concept Selection Criteria and Selected Concept . 80 4.16 AAR Prototype. 81 4.17 Summary . 83 5 Experimental Testing and Results 88 5.1 Functional Requirements . 88 5.2 Physical Requirements . 93 6 Conclusions and Recommendations for Future Work 101 6.1 Conclusions . 101 6.2 Recommendations for Future Work. 102 A Raw Data 114 ix List of Figures 1.1 Path planning for an autonomous, amphibious robot to navigate through the littoral zone . 2 2.1 Boeing's Extra Large Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV) competition platform Echo Voyager. [7] . 8 2.2 Boeing's 15.5m XLUUV Orca [8]. 8 2.3 Autonomous Underwater Robot (AUR) Jubilee with separate station keeping controls [9] . 11 2.4 Omni-Paddle 2 [10]. 12 2.5 Swimming Humanoid Robot [11]. 13 2.6 Whegs/wheel prototype [13]. 14 2.7 McGill University’s robot AQUA [29]. 21 2.8 Shoreline Detection Autonomous Surface Vessel (ASV) [31]. 22 2.9 Watertight compartments for navigation Equipment [31] . 23 2.10 Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) Kingfish [34]. 24 2.11 Teledyne’s Littoral Battlespace Sensing-Glider (LBS-G) uses changes in buoyancy to autonomously propel itself through the ocean [34] . 25 2.12 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) charging off of the back of a Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) [40] . 28 2.13 Autonomous Boat with Synthetic Aperture Sonar [41] . 29 2.14 Omni-directional camera used to detect shoreline. The green radius marks distance to shore [41] . 30 2.15 Automated Ships Ltd and Kongsberg design of the unmanned fully-automated off shore vessel Hronn [42] . 31 2.16 VAIMOS Autonomous Robotic Sailboat [43] . .. 32 2.17 ADA UBC Autonomous Robotic Sailboat [48] . .. 33 2.18 Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory's Unmanned Aerial-Aquatic Vehicle (UAAV) Unmanned Aerial-Aquatic Vehicle Flying Fish [49] . 34 2.19 Clearpath's Marine autonomy research platform [50] . 35 2.20.
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