NRI: Collaborative Research: Adaptive multi-Robot Configurable Teams Investigating Changing Ecosystem

University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln NE

Investigators

Abstract

This project addresses key goals in the development of integrative robotic systems, such as improvements in robot capability for sample collection, flexible robot tasking based on vehicle abilities, and improved human performance in operation and monitoring of robot teams. Teams of complementary flying, floating, and underwater robots developed by the project team have recently gained the ability to perform observations at precise locations and take measurements both above and below the surface of the water. Additional development aid in obtaining water quality, temperature, and underwater mapping measurements, as well as wildlife and ecosystem observations, at remote sites in Alaska. This project presents a vision for advancing multi-robot technologies, scientific deployment practices, and understanding in order to extend the reach of human sensing in difficult-to-access environments while also providing fundamental scientific understanding of a new disturbance regime affecting all aspects of low-land Arctic ecosystems. New and unexpected wildlife are moving north into Arctic tundra as climate change redistributes their habitat. For example, satellite research has shown the North American beaver has colonized vast areas of northwestern Alaska over the last 20 years and because of the new dams and hydrological changes, permafrost is thawing. Access to measure what effect this landscape change has on aquatic habitats and regional ecosystems is difficult due to the remoteness of the terrain, an inability to collect underwater measurements, and the complexity of the mixed aquatic and terrestrial wetland environment that defines the beaver engineered environment. This project advances the NSF National Robotics Initiative (NRI) with an integrative robotic agenda, focusing on the integration of robotics systems and teams, inspired in the context of Uninhabited Aerial, Surface, and Underwater Systems (UAS, USS, and UUS; collectively defined as UxS) based tundra ecosystem monitoring, taking a multidisciplinary approach that requires efforts at the intersection of robotics, computer science, systems engineering, and tundra ecosystem science. This work contributes to transformative environmental monitoring technologies as part of a UxS sampling system to expand the reach of scientists in challenging environments. This research advances vehicle innovations to improve mechanisms and algorithms for sample collection in new contexts, online replanning/retasking of sampling based on environmental and vehicle observations, understanding of user proficiency, mental models, and mutual adaptation for improved system performance, and new methods for data collection in amphibious tundra environments to study permafrost thaw and global change formation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.