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.
Capstone Team Buoy for the 2022-2023 academic year worked to prototype a (currently) remote controlled (aiming for autonomous) miniature version of the FLIP ship. Here is a brief example of sea trials in the horizontal configuration.
One of our 2022-2023 capstone projects was the design and build of a sprint capable underwater glider. Check out their video here.
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.
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.
This is an RC to autonomous conversion done by undergraduate researcher Dhawal Bhanderi. In this video, at 4x speed, it starts off running autonomously, Dhawal takes control as it goes under the dock, then returns it to autonomous waypoint tracking. Check out the video:
McCue, L., “Design Trends in Unmanned Systems,” SNAME/IBEX 2019, Tampa, FL, September 30, 2019.
Cooper, M. and McCue, L., “Design of a Controller for Autonomous Vessel Recovery Utilizing the Prediction of Host Vessel Motions,” Naval Engineers Journal, Volume 129, Number 1, 1 March 2017, pp. 117-131(15).
