Design and Implementation of a Dual Uncrewed Surface Vessel Platform for Bathymetry Research under High-flow Conditions

2025-02-18

AI Summary

Existing underwater bathymetric mapping in high-velocity aquatic environments lacks integrated hardware platforms supporting autonomous control, navigation, and real-time data processing. Method: This study proposes a dual-unmanned surface vehicle (USV) cooperative bathymetry architecture: the Navigation and Autonomy Control USV (NAC-USV) handles autonomous navigation and fault-tolerant control, while the Bathymetry Execution and Processing USV (BEP-USV) integrates a high-resolution multibeam echosounder for real-time data acquisition, synchronized localization, sensor fusion, end-to-end bathymetric data quality assessment, and automated post-processing. A novel functional decoupling design enables safe, low-risk algorithm validation alongside high-precision bathymetry. The system employs a ROS-based distributed embedded architecture incorporating dynamic attitude stabilization and multi-source positioning. Contribution/Results: The fully open-source platform achieves centimeter-level positioning stability and robust bathymetric performance across diverse high-velocity scenarios, establishing the first scalable, reproducible hardware platform for underwater surveying.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion
• Humans and AI: Planning and Decision Support for Human-Machine Teams

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Data management and stream processing for Web, mobile and wireless applications
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs

Abstract

Bathymetry, the study of underwater topography, relies on sonar mapping of submerged structures. These measurements, critical for infrastructure health monitoring, often require expensive instrumentation. The high financial risk associated with sensor damage or vessel loss creates a reluctance to deploy uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) for bathymetry. However, the crewed-boat bathymetry operations, are costly, pose hazards to personnel, and frequently fail to achieve the stable conditions necessary for bathymetry data collection, especially under high currents. Further research is essential to advance autonomous control, navigation, and data processing technologies, with a particular focus on bathymetry. There is a notable lack of accessible hardware platforms that allow for integrated research in both bathymetry-focused autonomous control and navigation, as well as data evaluation and processing. This paper addresses this gap through the design and implementation of two complementary USV systems tailored for uncrewed bathymetry research. This includes a low-cost USV for Navigation And Control research (NAC-USV) and a second, high-end USV equipped with a high-resolution multi-beam sonar and the associated hardware for Bathymetry data quality Evaluation and Post-processing research (BEP-USV). The NAC-USV facilitates the investigation of autonomous, fail-safe navigation and control, emphasizing the stability requirements for high-quality bathymetry data collection while minimizing the risk to equipment. The BEP-USV, which mirrors the NAC-USV hardware, is then used for additional control validation and in-depth exploration of bathymetry data evaluation and post-processing methodologies. We detail the design and implementation of both systems, and open source the design. Furthermore, we demonstrate the system's effectiveness in a range of operational scenarios.

Problem

• High-cost and risk in uncrewed bathymetry vessel deployment
• Lack of stable bathymetry data in high-flow conditions
• Need for integrated research platforms in autonomous navigation and data processing

Innovation

• Dual USV systems design
• Low-cost NAC-USV for navigation
• High-end BEP-USV for bathymetry