The Vessel Dynamics Lab had a fabulous time at IEEE/MTS Oceans 2023 in Limerick, Ireland, where graduate student researcher Vanessa Barth presented on “Gaze controlled underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to improve accessibility in maritime robotics” and undergrad researcher Sam Athapaththu presented his “Autonomous modular water collection system.”
Athapaththu, A., Barth, V., Jones, V., and McCue, L., “Autonomous modular water collection system,” 2023 IEEE Oceans Conference, June 5-8, Limerick, Ireland.
Barth, V., Jones, V., Athapaththu, A., and McCue, L., “Gaze controlled underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to improve accessibility in maritime robotics,” 2023 IEEE Oceans Conference, June 5-8, Limerick, Ireland.
Barth, V., Berg, C., Costa, P., Cummings, M., Denham, W., Handler, R., Hayes, M., Karri, D., Kathir, N., McCue, L., Miller Hooks, E., Nowzari, C., Reagle, C., Rosenblum, D., Rostobaya, V., Sanders, Q., Shishika, D., Shortle, J., and Sinanovic, E., “On the vertical and horizontal integration of robotics within engineering and computing education,” IUTAM Symposium on Optimal Guidance and Control for Autonomous Systems, March 15-17, 2023, Honolulu, Hawaii.
McCue, L., Barth, V., and Hall, J., “SeaPerch and SeaGlide Camp Implementation,” ASEE Southeastern Section Conference, Fairfax, VA, March 12-14, 2023.
The paper is in progress, but here’s a sneak peak at Vanessa Barth’s work on eye gaze control using a BlueROV2 as the test platform. From the ROV’s eye-view through the window in the water tank, Vanessa can be spotted facing her computer around 28 seconds in.
Friends,
Thank you all sincerely for your role in getting Mason to the 2022 RobotX competition in Penrith, Australia. Our travel team consisted of six individuals – three undergrads: Emina Sinanovic, Damion Colgrove, and Orion Colgrove, one grad student: Vanessa Barth, one alum: Reginald Lockhart, and me. Due to global shipping challenges, we made a tactical decision a couple months out not to ship the boat, and to participate technically as a “documentation only” team. That said, RoboNation generously provided us on-site workspace, and we traveled with our UAV and sensing packages, joining a team of teams with Lake Superior State University and Queensland University of Technology. Mason was able to tick off two competition tasks – the heartbeat message and UAV search and rescue. It was exciting to see the onsite team work, as lead Reggie kept everyone on task, optimistic, and enthusiastic while rapidly tapping into resources from last year’s work, Emina and Vanessa rallied to make the heartbeat happen, and Orion and Damion successfully executed UAV waypoint navigation and perception, all supported by the months of effort students and alums put into the project over the last year, plus wonderful camaraderie from all on-site teams, particularly our LSSU/QUT newfound friends.
Over the course of the last year, we engaged 26 students from mechanical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, computer science, and systems engineering and operations research in this maritime robotics opportunity. This was made possible by amazing faculty mentors from each of those departments: Greg Stein, Jana Kosecka, Lance Sherry, Ali Raz, Erion Plaku, Daigo Shishika, Cameron Nowzari, and Nathan Kathir who oversees the ME department’s capstone program, industry sponsors Gibbs & Cox, Beck Foundation, and the US Government, our volunteer “customer” and source of RobotX knowledge extraordinaire CAPT Dave Edwards, and the stupendous Mason support we received including, but not limited to, Ardiana Brahja for purchasing, Johnnie Hall with prototyping and machining, Melissa Perez and Zachary Machuga on export compliance and shipping, and Kim Goodwin-Slater and Kayla Hine on finance.
Julianna Smith and the whole team at RoboNation and Kelly Cooper at ONR – thank you so much for this opportunity and rolling with us when we made our tactical shift. Travis Moscicki, thank you for your patience and coaching on the heartbeat. Justin Hechinger at Camzilla, thank you for making sure our drone would have power once we got to Australia. To the volunteers from the Model Aeronautical Association of Australia – thank you for keeping things safe and lively. And to the best volunteer embedded judge a team could ask for – Julie Young, big thanks for your wisdom, positivity, and reminders to take lots of photos and enjoy the experience. On the topic of photos, attached are two of my favorites – the Mason team on site and the LSSU/QUT/Mason megateam.
Thank you all, and looking forward to 2024!
Respectfully,
Leigh
Samuel Athapaththu is an undergrad at Mason starting his senior year this fall in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently working as a research assistant studying ways to acquire water samples on autonomous underwater vehicles. He enjoys building and designing solutions to challenging problems, and in his free time enjoys working out, spending time with family and friends, and exploring new places.
Vanessa joined the Vessel Dynamics Lab as a PhD student in Spring 2022. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from George Mason University, where she loved the environment so much she decided to stay for graduate school. Her research interests include autonomous systems, dynamics and controls, and machine learning. She is currently working on accessible control of an ROV using an eye tracker. Outside the lab, Vanessa enjoys cooking, solving jigsaw puzzles, and playing with her dogs.
Van’s PhD research focuses on using particle based CFD to study a host of naval engineering problems with an emphasis on computational aspects to particle-based codes. He is the resident computer scientist on the research team. For more details on Van’s work, click on the tag ‘Jones‘ on this site.
