Exo-Ocean Exploration with Deep-Sea Sensor and Platform Technologies

Aguzzi, Jacopo; Flexas, María del Mar; Flögel, Sascha; Iacono, Claudio Lo; Tangherlini, Michael; Costa, Corrado; Marini, Simone; Bahamón, Nixon; Martini, Séverine; Fanelli, Emanuela; Danovaro, Roberto; Stefanni, Sérgio; Thomsen, Laurenz; Riccobene, G.; Hildebrandt, Marc; Masmitja, I.; Río, Joaquín Del; Clark, Erin; Branch, Andrew; Weiß, Peter; Klesh, Andrew T.; Schodlok, Michael

doi:10.1089/ast.2019.2129

Cited by 22 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 156 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Another reason justifying the recent growth in robotic biomimicry research is space exploration. Such an exploration is not only oriented to Mars, but it actually includes the sub-surface oceans of Europa and Enceladus and other icy moons as equivalents to deep-sea terrestrial environments [ 38 , 53 , 79 , 80 ]. Proposed applications plan to use vectors to carry biomimicking probes for their delivery into specific terrestrial, atmospheric and aquatic environments, orienting biomimicking research toward the design of the structural hardware and toward the emulation of specific behavioral aspects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The statistical approach proposed in this work is based on [ 49 , 50 , 51 ] and aimed to highlight the most promising bio-inspired robotics marine research areas, identifying temporal trends, some established and emerging research targets, and the degree of international cooperation. We focused on marine biomimetics for three main reasons: (i) ocean exploration is challenging and the exploration and monitoring require the development of innovative platforms technologies, also fulfilling the needs for space research, e.g., [ 52 , 53 ]; (ii) underwater organisms show unique adaptations to extreme conditions, which could be of inspiration for entirely novel robotic developments; and finally, (iii) marine organisms have dynamic reactions when they perceive the presence of current platforms [ 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 ] as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and internet operated vehicles (IoVs) as crawlers, so that the biomimetic development will improve the exploration capability, to picture biodiversity to an extent never attained before.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Research Trends and Future Perspectives in Marine Biomimicking Robotics

Aguzzi

Costa

Funari

et al. 2021

Sensors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mechatronic and soft robotics are taking inspiration from the animal kingdom to create new high-performance robots. Here, we focused on marine biomimetic research and used innovative bibliographic statistics tools, to highlight established and emerging knowledge domains. A total of 6980 scientific publications retrieved from the Scopus database (1950–2020), evidencing a sharp research increase in 2003–2004. Clustering analysis of countries collaborations showed two major Asian-North America and European clusters. Three significant areas appeared: (i) energy provision, whose advancement mainly relies on microbial fuel cells, (ii) biomaterials for not yet fully operational soft-robotic solutions; and finally (iii), design and control, chiefly oriented to locomotor designs. In this scenario, marine biomimicking robotics still lacks solutions for the long-lasting energy provision, which presently hinders operation autonomy. In the research environment, identifying natural processes by which living organisms obtain energy is thus urgent to sustain energy-demanding tasks while, at the same time, the natural designs must increasingly inform to optimize energy consumption.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research Trends and Future Perspectives in Marine Biomimicking Robotics

Aguzzi

Costa

Funari

et al. 2021

Sensors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Envisaged autonomous robotic exploration and monitoring technologies are being developed using space analogs on Earth [46,47]. Marine observatory deployment scenarios are considered operative analogues of extraterrestrial oceans exploration, testing for increased reliability in robot autonomy in self-assembling, -repair, and -energetic tasks [17]. These aspects are of broad relevance for planetary surface explorations [48], where robotic platforms will subsidize humans in space exploration over the next decades [49].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While autonomy in space [16] and terrestrial robots have experienced significant increases in research and applied technologies, robots in the underwater domain are still mostly tele-operated, although this scenario is closest to space research [17]. Tethered crawler technology operated remotely through an Internet-based connection, has already been used in association with cabled observatory infrastructure [18,19].…”

Section: Ai Developments For Image Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Flexible Autonomous Robotic Observatory Infrastructure for Bentho-Pelagic Monitoring

Aguzzi

Albiez²,

Flögel

et al. 2020

Sensors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents the technological developments and the policy contexts for the project “Autonomous Robotic Sea-Floor Infrastructure for Bentho-Pelagic Monitoring” (ARIM). The development is based on the national experience with robotic component technologies that are combined and merged into a new product for autonomous and integrated ecological deep-sea monitoring. Traditional monitoring is often vessel-based and thus resource demanding. It is economically unviable to fulfill the current policy for ecosystem monitoring with traditional approaches. Thus, this project developed platforms for bentho-pelagic monitoring using an arrangement of crawler and stationary platforms at the Lofoten-Vesterålen (LoVe) observatory network (Norway). Visual and acoustic imaging along with standard oceanographic sensors have been combined to support advanced and continuous spatial-temporal monitoring near cold water coral mounds. Just as important is the automatic processing techniques under development that have been implemented to allow species (or categories of species) quantification (i.e., tracking and classification). At the same time, real-time outboard processed three-dimensional (3D) laser scanning has been implemented to increase mission autonomy capability, delivering quantifiable information on habitat features (i.e., for seascape approaches). The first version of platform autonomy has already been tested under controlled conditions with a tethered crawler exploring the vicinity of a cabled stationary instrumented garage. Our vision is that elimination of the tether in combination with inductive battery recharge trough fuel cell technology will facilitate self-sustained long-term autonomous operations over large areas, serving not only the needs of science, but also sub-sea industries like subsea oil and gas, and mining.

show abstract

“…This makes miniaturization especially important. Another key technology is autonomy, where relevant work has already been done in Earth's oceans for at least 15 years (German et al 2008) and also for exo-ocean-related research (Aguzzi et al 2020;Arora et al 2019). This, however, is a wide field that would go beyond the scope of this chapter.…”

Section: Enabling Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Key Technologies and Instrumentation for Subsurface Exploration of Ocean Worlds

Dachwald

Ulamec

Postberg³

et al. 2020

Space Sci Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this chapter, the key technologies and the instrumentation required for the subsurface exploration of ocean worlds are discussed. The focus is laid on Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus because they have the highest potential for such missions in the near future. The exploration of their oceans requires landing on the surface, penetrating the thick ice shell with an ice-penetrating probe, and probably diving with an underwater vehicle through dozens of kilometers of water to the ocean floor, to have the chance to find

show abstract

Exo-Ocean Exploration with Deep-Sea Sensor and Platform Technologies

Cited by 22 publications

References 156 publications

Research Trends and Future Perspectives in Marine Biomimicking Robotics

Research Trends and Future Perspectives in Marine Biomimicking Robotics

A Flexible Autonomous Robotic Observatory Infrastructure for Bentho-Pelagic Monitoring

Key Technologies and Instrumentation for Subsurface Exploration of Ocean Worlds

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About