Functional self-awareness and metacontrol for underwater robot autonomy

Aguado, Esther; Milosevic, Zorana; Hernández, Carlos; Sanz, Ricardo; Garzon Oviedo, M.A.; Bozhinoski, D.; Rossi, Claudio

doi:10.3390/s21041210

Functional self-awareness and metacontrol for underwater robot autonomy

Title

Functional self-awareness and metacontrol for underwater robot autonomy

Author

Aguado, Esther (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid)
Milosevic, Zorana (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; Resources Computing International Ltd)
Hernández, Carlos (TU Delft Robot Dynamics)
Sanz, Ricardo (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid)
Garzon Oviedo, M.A. (TU Delft Robot Dynamics)
Bozhinoski, D. (TU Delft Robot Dynamics)
Rossi, Claudio (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid)

Date

2021

Abstract

Autonomous systems are expected to maintain a dependable operation without human intervention. They are intended to fulfill the mission for which they were deployed, properly handling the disturbances that may affect them. Underwater robots, such as the UX-1 mine explorer developed in the UNEXMIN project, are paradigmatic examples of this need. Underwater robots are affected by both external and internal disturbances that hamper their capability for autonomous operation. Long-term autonomy requires not only the capability of perceiving and properly acting in open environments but also a sufficient degree of robustness and resilience so as to maintain and recover the operational functionality of the system when disturbed by unexpected events. In this article, we analyze the operational conditions for autonomous underwater robots with a special emphasis on the UX-1 miner explorer. We then describe a knowledge-based self-awareness and metacontrol subsystem that enables the autonomous reconfiguration of the robot subsystems to keep mission-oriented capability. This resilience augmenting solution is based on the deep modeling of the functional architecture of the autonomous robot in combination with ontological reasoning to allow self-diagnosis and reconfiguration during operation. This mechanism can transparently use robot functional redundancy to ensure mission satisfaction, even in the presence of faults.

Subject

Autonomy
Metacontrol
Ontology
Rendundancy
Resilience
Self-awareness

To reference this document use:

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d7cc332d-e10e-4f26-8cd6-fa07a361ffc4

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3390/s21041210

ISSN

1424-8220

Source

Sensors, 21 (4)

Part of collection

Institutional Repository