Category: ROV

Remotely operated vehicles, design, modeling, simulation, control design, implementation and testing

Research

Fault Tolerant Air Data System

An integrated fault detection, identification, isolation, and accommodation scheme is proposed for an Air Data System with airspeed and angle of attack sensors. The system uses information from the inertial measurement unit, available air data sensors, and an aircraft digital twin model that provides virtual measurements of its aerodynamic and propulsion forces to feed a nonlinear estimator capable of detecting air sensor failure and suppressing sensor fault effects on the aircraft air data prediction.

UAV for research in Flight Mechanics and Control

A UAV was developed for research in Flight Mechanics and Flight Controls. The project involves integrating sensors with an embedded processor in a small fixed-wing aircraft and creating a flexible software infrastructure for implementing and testing flight control algorithms. The sensor suite consists of an IMU, a magnetometer, a GPS, a pitot tube with a differential pressure sensor, alpha and beta vanes, control surface position sensors, and a sensor for engine RPM. An actuator interface and RF communication link are also included for telecommand and telemetry.

Flight Data Recorder for acquisition of flight test data in a ultra light aircraft

A flight data recording system was developed for an ultralight aircraft. The aircraft was instrumented for recording data from certification flight tests and mathematical aircraft modeling.

Structure Manager, a software infrastructure for the implementation of Real Time Control Systems

Structure manager software in a Eclipse IDE

A software infrastructure for implementing real-time control systems has been developed in C language. The infrastructure, combined with a sound programming methodology (object-oriented), enables some powerful features in the real-time application, accelerating the production cycle of the software. The Structure Manager comprises a library that implements all the infrastructure functionality and a tool to automatically generate code at compilation time that connects the infrastructure with the application.

Andean Condor UAV

The Andean Condor unmanned aerial system is a tactical UAV for surveillance, exploration, reconnaissance, and intelligence. Possible applications in photogrammetry and precision agriculture are also considered. This development resulted from the project “Development of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial system for short-range missions – Aura Jr” (2007-2009).

Software for modeling, analysis and design of a fixed wing aircraft

The software has been developed to model, analyze, and design a fixed-wing aircraft. The software comprises a set of functions written in the Matlab® language and is fully compatible with Octave and a collection of simulation models developed in Simulink® that include the simulation of the nonlinear aircraft model with the flight control system. Several versions of the simulation model are more refined than others.

VISOR 3 ROV

VISOR 3 is an ROV developed by the Excuela Naval Almirante Padilla (ENAP) and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB), through the research groups in Naval Engineering (GIIN), Automation and Design A+D and the Institute of Energy and Thermodynamics (IET), with the support of Colciencias. The ROV is an underwater robotic platform for inspecting port structures and hulls of transport vessels to comply with the ISPS code.

Aura Jr UAV

Aura Jr was a small UAV for short-range missions, the first UAV developed at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. The prototype was a technology demonstrator for the project “Research and Design of an Automatic Remote Inspection System for Electric Power Transmission Lines” (2004-2005) sponsored by Interconectado Eléctrica SA (ISA), Colciencias and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. It led to another project, “Development of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial system for short-range missions – Aura Jr” (2007-2009).

Preliminary design of Aura UAV for monitoring of Power Transmission Lines

The Aura UAV’s preliminary design resulted from the project “Research and Design of an Automatic Remote Inspection System for Electric Power Transmission Lines” (2004-2005). Its primary objective was to investigate and design an autonomous inspection system prototype for high and extra-high-voltage transmission lines.

Adaptive Mode Transition Control Architecture With an Application to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

A new approach to unmanned aerial vehicles’ adaptive mode transition control was proposed. The proposed architecture consists of three levels: mission planning routines are at the highest level, where the information about waypoints the vehicle must follow is processed; the mid-level controller uses a trajectory-planning component to coordinate the task execution and provides set points for low-level stabilizing controllers. The adaptive mode-transitioning control algorithm resides at the lowest level of the hierarchy consisting of a mode-transitioning controller and the accompanying adaptation mechanism. A flight demonstration was done as part of a Software Enabled Control research program (sponsored by DARPA) to validate the control algorithms using the GTmax, the Georgia Tech UAV testbed.

VISOR 2 ROV

VISOR 2 was an ROV developed as an underwater vehicle with dual control (1998-2000). Julio Cesar Correa Rodríguez, Luis Benigno Gutiérrez Zea, and Laszlo Jurko led the project.

Neural Network Control of a Flexible Link

A neural network (NN) tracking controller was implemented on a single flexible link, and the performance results of the neural network controller were compared to that of proportional derivative (PD) and proportional integral derivative (PID) standard controllers. The NN controller comprises an outer PD tracking loop, a singular perturbation inner loop to stabilize the fast flexible-mode dynamics, and an NN inner loop to feedback linearize the slow pointing dynamics. It is shown that the tracking performance of the NN controller is far better than that of the PD or PID standard controllers. No offline training or learning was needed for the NN. An extra friction term was added to the tests to demonstrate the ability of the NN to learn unmodeled nonlinear dynamics.

Remotely Operated Vehicles ROV

VISOR 2 ROV

Summary

VISOR 2 was an ROV developed as an underwater vehicle with dual control (1998-2000). The project was led by Julio Cesar Correa Rodríguez, Luis Benigno Gutiérrez Zea and Laszlo Jurko.

Gallery

Construction

Related publications

[1] L. B. Gutiérrez, L. Jurko Vásquez, and C. A. Zuluaga, “Control de navegación de un vehículo subacuático,” in IX Congreso Latinoamericano de Control Automático y IV Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Automática, (Cali, Colombia), Asociación Colombiana de Automática, Noviembre 1-3, 2000. ISBN: 958-33-1900-7. pdf

[2] L. B. Gutiérrez, J. C. Correa, L. Jurko Vásquez, and C. A. Zuluaga, “Diseño y construcción de un vehículo subacuático controlado en forma dual,” in Jornadas de Investigación 1999-2000, (Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín, Colombia), Tomo 2, pp. 127–141, 2000.

[3] L. B. Gutiérrez Zea, “Diseño y construcción de un vehículo subacuático controlado en forma dual,” in Memorias I Congreso Internacional de Ingenierías Eléctrica y Electrónica, (Bucaramanga, Colombia), Marzo 27 – Abril 1, 2000. ISBN: 958-9318-69-X.

[4] J. C. Correa Rodríguez, L. B. Gutiérrez Zea, and L. Jurko Vásquez, “Consideraciones de diseño para un vehículo subacuático con control dual: autónomo y vía cable,” in VIII Congreso Latinoamericano de Control Automático, (Viña del Mar, Chile), vol. 2, pp. 785–790, Noviembre 9-13, 1998. pdf

[5] L. B. Gutiérrez, J. C. Correa, and L. Jurko, “Consideraciones de diseño para un vehículo subacuático con control dual: autónomo y vía cable,” in III Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Automática, (Universidad Católica de Oriente, Rionegro, Antioquia, Colombia), Septiembre 24, 1998.

Remotely Operated Vehicles Robotics ROV

VISOR 3 ROV

Summary

Due to the events that occurred on September 11, 2001, international concern regarding terrorism has increased, and how the latter has taken as its objective to affect the world economy according to its precepts. That is why the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has taken as a policy to strengthen international port security, taking into account the importance that the means of maritime transport has in international trade, and for that reason it has issued the International Code for the protection of Ships and Port Facilities (ISPS Code), where clear security policies are established for all ports that have international trade.

However, Colombia has a privileged location as it is bathed by 2 oceans, through which the shipping trade flows, and that is why it has a port infrastructure that must be in accordance with the precepts ordered in the ISPS. This code establishes underwater inspection practices for port structures, ship hulls and underwater soil. To carry out this task, this project seeks to develop a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) in order to reduce the costs of underwater inspection without risking human lives, thus appropriating a technology that has been developed in the rest of the world. quite a lot, but in our country it is accessible only through large investments without appropriation of technology.

This is why the Almirante Padilla Naval Cadet School (ENAP) and the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB), through the research groups in Naval Engineering (GIIN), Automation and Design A+D and the Institute of Energy and Thermodynamics (IET), decided to join efforts in pursuit of the integration of this technology to our country through the development of an underwater robotic platform in order to inspect the port structures and hulls of transport vessels, in order to comply with the ISPS code.

The remotely operated submersible vehicle has been fully developed, from preliminary design to detailed design. In addition, a prototype has been built and tested in the water, showing the effectiveness of the design. The ROV has been developed using the most modern design techniques from the mechanical point of view, with CAD, CAE and CAM software for some parts. Regarding the electronic hardware, the equipment was designed including state-of-the-art equipment to allow manual and semi-automatic operation of the ROV. The control software on board the ROV allows the software operation mode to be controlled from a console, allows monitoring of all the software variables and also allows communication with the surface station software that implements a graphical user interface to monitor the most important variables and control the movement of the robot with a joystick. The ROV has a robotic camera that allows remote inspection tasks to be carried out. The data communication system between the ground control station and the ROV is via ethernet for maximum flexibility. In this way, the processor and the camera on board the ROV can communicate with the surface station using the UDP/IP and TCP/IP protocols. The modularity and flexibility of the hardware and software design will allow future changes with great ease, for example to add other sensors and to modify the algorithms and logic of the control system. This underwater robotic system constitutes an important technological development that can be used for the planned inspection tasks in ports and other underwater investigation tasks.

Presentation

Construction

Related publications

[1] L. B. Gutiérrez, C. A. Zuluaga, J. A. Ramírez, R. E. Vásquez, D. A. Flórez, E. A. Taborda, and R. A. Valencia, “Development of an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) for surveillance and inspection of port facilities,” in Proceedings of the ASME 2010 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Volume 11: New Developments in Simulation Methods and Software for Engineering Applications; Safety Engineering, Risk Analysis and Reliability Methods; Transportation Systems, (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), pp. 631–640, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME, ASME, November 12–18, 2010. Available: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/proceedings-abstract/IMECE2010/44489/631/340083, ISBN: 978-0-7918-4448-9, doi: https://doi.org/10.1115/IMECE2010-38217. pdf

[2] R. Valencia, J. A. Ramírez, L. B. Gutiérrez, and M. García, “Simulation of the thrust forces of a ROV,” in Primer Congreso Internacional de Diseno e Ingenieria Naval CIDIN 09, (Cartagena, Colombia), Corporación de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo de la Industria Naval Marítima y Fluvial COTECMAR, Marzo 25-27, 2009. Presentation

[3] J. A. Ramírez, R. E. Vásquez, L. B. Gutiérrez, and D. A. Flórez, “Mechanical/naval design of an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) for surveillance and inspection of port facilities,” in Proceedings of the ASME 2007 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition IMECE2007, Volume 16: Transportation Systems, (Seattle, WA, USA), pp. 351–361, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME, ASME, November 11-15, 2007. Available: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/proceedings-abstract/IMECE2007/43106/351/326622, ISBN: 0-7918-4310-6, doi: https://doi.org/10.1115/IMECE2007-41706. pdf

[4] L. Cardona, M. Osorio, and L. B. Gutiérrez, “Sistema de navegación para vehículos no tripulados,” in Memorias XIII Congreso Latinoamericano de Control Automatico, (Mérida, Venezuela), IFAC, Noviembre 25-28, 2008. ISBN: 978-980-11-1224-2. pdf

[5] L. B. Gutiérrez, “Sistemas no tripulados,” in Memorias IV Colombian IEEE Workshop of Robotics and Automation, (Cali, Colombia), IEEE Colombia, Agosto 13-15, 2008. ISBN: 978958-8122-75-5. Presentation

[6] L. B. Gutiérrez, J. A. Ramírez, C. A. Zuluaga, R. E. Vásquez, D. A. Flórez, and R. A. Valencia, “Diseno básico de un vehículo operado remotamente (ROV) para inspección subacuática de instalaciones portuarias,” in Memorias 3rd IEEE Colombian Workshop on Robotics and Automation-CWRA 2007, (Cartagena, Colombia), IEEE Colombia, August 21-22, 2007. ISBN: 978-958-44-0805-1. pdf

[7] C. A. Zuluaga and L. B. Gutiérrez, “Infraestructura de simulacion para vehiculos no tripulados,” in Memorias VII Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Automática, (Cali, Colombia), Asociación Colombiana de Automática, Marzo 21-24, 2007. ISBN: 9789484408. pdf

[8] J. F. Franco and L. B. Gutiérrez, “Análisis de dominio de un marco de tiempo real para vehiculos autonomos no tripulados,” in Memorias VII Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Automática, (Cali, Colombia), Asociación Colombiana de Automática, Marzo 21-24, 2007. ISBN: 9789484408. pdfParagraphParagraph

Aircraft Flight Control Embedded Systems Real-time Control Systems Remotely Operated Vehicles ROV UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Structure Manager, a software infrastructure for the implementation of Real Time Control Systems

Summary

A software infrastructure for the implementation of real time control systems have been developed in C language. The Structure Manager is composed of a library that implements all the infrastructure functionality and a tool to generate code automatically at compilation time, that connects the infrastructure with the application at hand. The infrastructure, combined with a sound programming methodology (object oriented like) enables some powerful features in the real time application accelerating the production cycle of the software.
Some of the features enabled by the infrastructure are:

Command line interface with the application through a local or remote console. The programmer decides whether enabling these interfaces through a local console, or a remote console using serial or TCP/IP.
Multi user enabled environment, with a programmable structure of permissions. Each user can connect to the application using a password. There is a super user with all the permissions and a programmable hierarchical structure of permissions for other users. The developer can decide which tasks are included in the permissions structure, being enabled to generate groups of tasks for specific permissions.
Access to the data structures of the application defined by the software designer, to enable the change of the application behavior through the manipulation of some configuration data at specific times, data monitoring, data logging, or data communication.
Data logging enabled through the infrastructure. The user can program different data logs according to the necessity of the application. The data can be stored in a memory buffer while the application is running in real time, and saved to long term storage devices at the end of the real time operation to avoid the delays generated by the access to disk during real time operation. The user with necessary privileges can define which data are included in the data logs. All the logged data are time stamped for easy analysis in multi rate real time systems.
Programmable communication interfaces. The users with the right privileges can program messages to be sent through communication interfaces via serial, TCP/IP, or UDP/IP. This feature combined with the right hardware enables all the communications of the application at hand with other applications or software components, running in the same machine or other devices. The messages can be sent or received at specific times defined by the designer of the application, or can be programmed to occur periodically with a given sample time.
Programming and configuration of real time tasks through the Structure Manager interface in run time. Some tasks can be programmed and executed at real time, without the necessity to restart the application, or doing a recompilation of the application.

This software infrastructure has been used for the implementation of several real time applications: the real time control of an ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle), the real time Flight Control System of an UAV (unmanned Aerial Vehicle), a flight data recorder for an ultralight aircraft, a flight data recorder for small UAVs, and a platform for measuring small UAVs weight/balance and propulsion system performance.

Projects

Fault Tolerant Air Data System

An integrated airspeed and angle of attack sensor failure detection identification, isolation and accommodation scheme is proposed. The system uses information from the inertial measurement unit, available air data sensors, and an aircraft digital twin that provides virtual measurements of the aircraft’s aerodynamic and propulsion forces to feed a nonlinear estimator capable of detecting air sensor failure and suppress its effect on the aircraft air data prediction.

UAV for research in Flight Mechanics and Control

A UAV was developed for research in Flight Mechanics and Flight Controls. The project consists of the integration of a set of sensors with an embedded processor in a small fixed-wing aircraft and the development of a flexible software infrastructure for the implementation and testing of flight control algorithms. The sensor suite consists of an IMU, a magnetometer, a GPS, a pitot tube with a differential pressure sensor, alpha and beta vanes, control surface position sensors, and a sensor for engine RPM. An actuator interface and RF communication link are also included to allow telecommand and telemetry.

Flight Data Recorder for acquisition of flight test data in a ultra light aircraft

A flight data recording system was developed for an ultralight aircraft. The aircraft was instrumented to record data from certification flight tests and for mathematical modeling of the aircraft.

Structure Manager, a software infrastructure for the implementation of Real Time Control Systems

Andean Condor UAV

The Andean Condor unmanned aerial system is a tactical UAV for surveillance, exploration, reconnaissance, intelligence. Possible applications in photogrammetry and precision agriculture are also considered. This development is the result of the project “Development of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial system for short-range missions – Aura Jr” (2007-2009).

Software for modeling, analysis and design of a fixed wing aircraft

Software has been developed for the modeling, analysis and design of a fixed wing aircraft. The software is composed of a set of functions written in the Matlab® m language and is fully compatible with Octave. There is also a set of simulation models developed in Simulink® that include the simulation of the aircraft non-linear model with the flight control system. There are several versions of the simulation model, some more refined than others.

VISOR 3 ROV

VISOR 3 is an ROV developed by the Almirante Padilla Naval Cadet School (ENAP) and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB), through the research groups in Naval Engineering (GIIN), Automation and Design A+D and the Institute of Energy and Thermodynamics (IET), with the support of Colciencias. The ROV is an underwater robotic platform for inspecting port structures and hulls of transport vessels, in order to comply with the ISPS code.

Aura Jr UAV

Aura Jr was a small UAV for short-range missions. This was the first UAV developed at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. This was a prototype built as a technology demonstrator for the project “Research and Design of an Automatic Remote Inspection System for Electric Power Transmission Lines” (2004-2005) sponsored by Interconectado Eléctrica SA (ISA), Colciencias and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. It was the starting point of the project “Development of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial system for short-range missions – Aura Jr” (2007-2009).

Preliminary design of Aura UAV for monitoring of Power Transmission Lines

The preliminary design of the Aura UAV was the result of the project “Research and Design of an Automatic Remote Inspection System for Electric Power Transmission Lines” (2004-2005) had as its main objective to investigate and design the prototype of an autonomous inspection system for high and extra high voltage transmission lines.

Adaptive Mode Transition Control Architecture With an Application to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

A new approach to the adaptive mode transition control of unmanned aerial vehicles was proposed. The proposed architecture consists of three levels: the highest level is occupied by mission planning routines where information about way points the vehicle must follow is processed, The mid-level controller uses a trajectory-planning component to coordinate the task execution and provides set points for low-level stabilizing controllers. The adaptive mode transitioning control algorithm resides at the lowest level of the hierarchy consisting of a mode transitioning controller and the accompanying adaptation mechanism. A flight demonstration was done as part of a DARPA sponsored research program to validate the control algorithms using the GTmax, the Georgia Tech UAV testbed.

VISOR 2 ROV

VISOR 2 was an ROV developed as an underwater vehicle with dual control (1998-2000). The project was led by Julio Cesar Correa Rodríguez, Luis Benigno Gutiérrez Zea and Laszlo Jurko.

Neural Network Control of a Flexible Link

A neural network (NN) tracking controller was implemented on a single flexible link and the performance results of the neural network controller were compared to that of proportional derivative (PD) and proportional integral derivative (PID) standard controllers. The NN controller is composed of an outer PD tracking loop, a singular perturbation inner loop for stabilization of the fast flexible-mode dynamics, and an NN inner loop used to feedback linearize the slow pointing dynamics. No off-line training or learning is needed for the NN. It is shown that the tracking performance of the NN controller is far better than that of the PD or PID standard controllers. An extra friction term was added in the tests to demonstrate the ability of the NN to learn unmodeled nonlinear dynamics.