Marine Robotics
Technology: ROV, ASV, AUV, I-AUV, Manipulators
Applications: intervention, survey and exploration, team operations biological imaging, biological sampling, archaeology, positioning and localization systems
Underwater robots and surface robots, small submarines without a pilot, are a technology that can already substitute humans in many tasks, with great benefits in terms of safety and costs.
ISME orients its research at developing vehicles capable of autonomously accomplishing increasingly challenging tasks and exploiting also teams of different robots cooperating for the success of complex missions.
In the last decades the advances in underwater robotics has significantly grown, leading to the development of new technologies and methodologies in the marine area. Thanks to significant investments made in the recent past, high-budget research fields, like military security and offshore Oil&Gas, can already benefit from the use of reliable AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles), I-AUVs (Intervention AUVs) and ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) technology for different tasks with advantages in terms e.g. of necessary time, mission costs and human safety. Besides the intrinsic difficulties entailed by the hostile environment, one of the main obstacles for technology development in the field of underwater robotics is represented by the absorption by water of electromagnetic waves that make impossible radio-based communication and radio-based localization (GPS – Global Positioning System). When possible, electromagnetic waves are replaced by acoustic waves capable of propagating under the water surface even if with considerably minor performance and reliability.