(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-03-16)
West, Michael E.; Collins, Thomas R.; Bogle, John R.; Melim, Andrew; Novitzky, Michael
As the ocean attracts great attention on environmental issues and resources as well as scientific
and military tasks, the need for the use of underwater vehicle systems has become more apparent.
Underwater vehicles represent a fast-growing research area and promising industry as
advanced technologies in various subsystems develop and potential application areas are explored.
Great efforts have been made in developing autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to
overcome challenging scientific and engineering problems caused by the unstructured and hazardous
ocean environment. With the development of new materials, advanced computing and
sensory technology, as well as theoretical advancements, research and development activities in
the AUV community have increased.
The Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) is actively involved in three major research efforts:
underwater vehicle sensing, underwater communications, and underwater vehicle autonomy including
heterogeneous multi-vehicle collaboration. In order to test and experimentally validate
the research, GIT has developed a new small man-portable Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
called the Yellowfin. This new AUV provides a testbed for real world testing and experimentation
of the advanced algorithm development. This paper will show the GIT development in this area.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011)
Bogle, John R.; Melim, Andrew; West, Michael E.
Over the past two years, the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has developed a
new Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) called the Yellowfin. The purpose of the
vehicle is to provide a platform for research and development of autonomous, multivehicle
underwater technology. This paper documents the design of the vehicle
with an emphasis on the acoustic communication system, including the hardware
and software. The testing of the ACOMMS hardware and software system is also
discussed.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010)
West, Michael E.; Novitzky, Michael; Varnell, Jesse P.; Melim, Andrew; Sequin, Evan; Toler, Tedd C.; Collins, Tomas R.; Bogle, John R.
Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has developed the Yellowfin, a small
man-portable Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV). The mission for Yellowfin
is to conduct autonomous collaborative operations. The multi-UUV design
allows for a much wider swath of the ocean to be observed and monitored, while
collaborative operations allow multiple aspects of a mission to be tackled with
distributed systems. Both oceanographic and military missions are aided tremendously
by the use of such a UUV network. This paper introduces the modular
and flexible design of the Yellowfin system and describes some of the technologies
integrated within the system construct. The system and software architectures
of Yellowfin leverage COTS technologies, including software whose
foundation is MOOS-IvP, expanded to include several aspects of autonomy,
communication with the WHOI acoustics modem utilizing the JAUS message
standard, mission planning using MissionLab, mission execution via Falcon-
ViewTM , front seat control with a microcontroller, and visualization with the
Blender open-source, cross-platform suite of tools for 3D graphics.