As a part of a master’s thesis by Einar S. Ueland, a 2D-lidar (laser scanner) has been installed on the surface vessel CS-Saucer in the Marine Cybernetics Laboratory, with the purpose of performing autonomous exploration.

The attached video demonstrates the resulting system and shows how the CS-Saucer successfully explores the Marine Cybernetics Laboratory, set up with hinders. The exploration is performed autonomously, and the system has no prior information about the environment it is exploring. During operations, the system can utilize the generated map, and plan path's to any location within it.

The completion of the system involved the development of a suitable control system that merges exploration strategies, path planners, a motion controller, and a strategy for generating controller setpoints, and simultaneous localization and mapping.

The system is installed on the Robot Operating System (ROS), a flexible platform with a large open-source community. This platform has made it possible to implement tools familiar within the robotics community such as algorithms for performing simultaneous localization and mapping. In the spring of 2016, ROS was also used as a platform for an ROV in the Marine Cybernetics Laboratory. Both projects using ROS reviewed the platform positively, and it is likely that this will be a popular platform for future master’s students working in the Marine Cybernetics Laboratory.

A new Master’s thesis further investigating the possibilities of this setup is currently being conducted.

Find more information on the project seen in the video