MIT Engineers Develop Cognitive" Underwater Robots"

A team of MIT researchers is advancing underwater robotics through an initiative to bring more cognitive capabilities to autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The goal is to have humans specify high-level objectives, and the robot is able to use high-level decision making to figure out how to complete the task.

The team tested systems in March off the coast of Australia in collaboration with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Australian Center for Field Robotics and the University of Rhode Island, according to MIT News.

The system is designed to explore a list of goal locations, within any time constraints and account for physical directions. With cognition, the robot should be able to plan out the missions itself.

Researchers tested their system on an autonomous water glided, and saw that the robot was able to operate well among other autonomous vehicles and respond to higher-level commands, MIT News states.

“We wanted to show that these vehicles could plan their own missions, and execute, adapt, and re-plan them alone, without human support,” says Brian Williams, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, and principal developer of the mission-planning system. “With this system, we were showing we could safely zigzag all the way around the reef, like an obstacle course.”

The system will be presented at the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling this June in Israel.

For more information, visit MIT.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the university’s website.