Oceanids C2: An Integrated Command, Control, and Data Infrastructure for the Over-the-Horizon Operation of Marine Autonomous Systems

Catherine A Harris,Justin J H Buck,Alexandra Kokkinaki,Alvaro Lorenzo-Lopez,Stephen Loch,Owain Jones,Thomas Gardner,Alexander B Phillips

doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00397

Catherine A Harris, Justin J H Buck + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00397

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Abstract

Long-range Marine Autonomous Systems (MAS), operating beyond the visual line-of-sight of a human pilot or research ship, are creating unprecedented opportunities for oceanographic data collection. Able to operate for up to months at a time, periodically communicating with a remote pilot via satellite, long-range MAS vehicles significantly reduce the need for an expensive research ship presence within the operating area. Heterogeneous fleets of MAS vehicles, operating simultaneously in an area for an extended period of time, are becoming increasingly popular due to their ability to provide an improved composite picture of the marine environment. However at present, the expansion of the size and complexity of these multi-vehicle operations is limited by a number of factors: (1) custom control-interfaces require pilots to be trained in the use of each individual vehicle, with limited cross-platform standardisation; (2) the data produced by each vehicle are typically in a custom vehicle-specific format, making the automated ingestion of observational data for near-real-time analysis and assimilation into operational ocean models very difficult; (3) the majority of MAS vehicles do not provide machine-to-machine interfaces, limiting the development and usage of common piloting tools, multi-vehicle operating strategies, autonomous control algorithms and automated data delivery. In this paper, we describe a novel piloting and data management system (C2) which provides a unified web-based infrastructure for the operation of long-range MAS vehicles within the UK's National Marine Equipment Pool. The system automates the archiving, standardisation and delivery of near-real-time science data and associated metadata from the vehicles to end-users and Global Data Assembly Centres mid-mission. Through the use and promotion of standard data formats and machine interfaces throughout the C2 system, we seek to enable future opportunities to collaborate with both the marine science and robotics communities to maximise the delivery of high-quality oceanographic data for world-leading science.

Highlights

Due to the scale and complexity of the extreme environment of the world’s oceans, acquiring marine measurements at an optimal spatial and temporal resolution is very challenging
To fulfill our obligations to the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Data Policy and to “ensure the continuing availability of environmental data of long-term value. . . ”1, scientific data collected from the Marine Autonomous and Robotic Systems (MARS) platforms is delivered and archived by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC), where it is made available to the wider scientific community and the general public
Through the definition of industry-standard application programming interfaces (APIs), we aim to enable the C2 to interface with a wide range of externally-hosted models and control systems developed by C2 collaborators

Summary

Introduction

Due to the scale and complexity of the extreme environment of the world’s oceans, acquiring marine measurements at an optimal spatial and temporal resolution is very challenging. To facilitate access to marine measurement technologies, the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funds the National Marine Equipment Pool (NMEP) hosted at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC). The NMEP is the largest centralized marine scientific equipment pool in Europe, providing scientific instruments and equipment capable of sampling from the sea surface to the deep ocean. It includes the Marine Autonomous and Robotic Systems (MARS) fleet of 40+ robotic platforms, comprising Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), and underwater gliders (see Figure 1A). To fulfill our obligations to the NERC Data Policy and to “ensure the continuing availability of environmental data of long-term value. . . ”1, scientific data collected from the MARS platforms is delivered and archived by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) (a data assembly center, DAC), where it is made available to the wider scientific community and the general public

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