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Trends in Research and Development of Aquaculture Robots for Seabed Crops

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Electronic Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2024) | Viewed by 5221

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Group of Robots and Intelligent Machines, Polytechnic University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: control; robotics; parallel robots; haptic interfaces and teleoperation; mechanical design; multibody dynamics
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Today, robots applied to aquaculture are an emerging and necessary technology; however, to be effective, they require an active and permanent presence, just as they already do in fish farms. The concept of robotic aquaculture systems as permanent colonies is scarce, and there is no evidence of them—except for robots applied for specific tasks that involve, for example, mollusk harvesting, fish feeding, and monitoring of oceanic and biological variables. Industrialized aquaculture work requires the permanent activity of the means of production in an environment hostile to human life, and must consequently be carried out with automated machines, such as robots and specific mechanisms. Although ROV and AUV technologies have existed for a long time, these systems have been developed for other purposes, such as inspection, data collection, and very specific intervention actions, disasters, etc.; moreover, they are extremely expensive with highly specialized logistics. On the other hand, the concept of robotic permanence for sowing and harvesting food, and for the conservation and repair of marine ecosystems in an immense environment, proposes a different approach in the design of new, more resistant, and more durable underwater robotic systems. These must be energetically autonomous, with specialized robotic components (concentrators, drones, handling robots) that must collaborate with each other with defined objectives, to produce food and maintain the automation and coordination of their tasks. The development of new devices and aquaculture work tools that must be integrated into robots has implications for artificial intelligence in the control of multi-robot service systems.

Dr. Roque Saltaren
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • agricultural robot technology
  • multi-robot systems
  • artificial intelligence
  • intelligent equipment
  • new devices and aquaculture work tools
  • seabed crops
  • innovation
  • development

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 18448 KiB  
Article
Control Strategy of an Underactuated Underwater Drone-Shape Robot for Grasping Tasks
by Juan S. Cely, Miguel Ángel Pérez Bayas, Marco Carpio, Cecilia Elisabet García Cena, Avishai Sintov and Roque Saltaren
Sensors 2022, 22(22), 8828; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22228828 - 15 Nov 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2553
Abstract
In underwater environments, ensuring people’s safety is complicated, with potentially life-threatening outcomes, especially when divers have to work in deeper conditions. To improve the available solutions for working with robots in this kind of environment, we propose the validation of a control strategy [...] Read more.
In underwater environments, ensuring people’s safety is complicated, with potentially life-threatening outcomes, especially when divers have to work in deeper conditions. To improve the available solutions for working with robots in this kind of environment, we propose the validation of a control strategy for robots when taking objects from the seabed. The control strategy proposed is based on acceleration feedback in the model of the system. Using this model, the reference values for position, velocity and acceleration are estimated, and then the position error signal can be computed. When the desired position is obtained, it is possible to then obtain the position error. The validation was carried out using three different objects: a ball, a bottle, and a plant. The experiment consisted of using this control strategy to take those objects, which the robot carried for a moment to validate the stabilisation control and reference following the control in terms of angle and depth. The robot was operated by a pilot from outside of the pool and was guided using a camera and sonar in a teleoperated way. As an advantage of this control strategy, the model upon which the robot is based is decoupled, allowing control of the robot for each uncoupled plane, this being the main finding of these tests. This demonstrates that the robot can be controlled by a control strategy based on a decoupled model, taking into account the hydrodynamic parameters of the robot. Full article
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20 pages, 7947 KiB  
Article
Method to Develop Legs for Underwater Robots: From Multibody Dynamics with Experimental Data to Mechatronic Implementation
by Miguel Ángel Pérez Bayas, Juan Cely, Avishai Sintov, Cecilia E. García Cena and Roque Saltaren
Sensors 2022, 22(21), 8462; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22218462 - 3 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1979
Abstract
Exploration of the seabed may be complex, and different parameters must be considered for a robotic system to achieve tasks in this environment, such as soil characteristics, seabed gait, and hydrodynamic force in this extreme environment. This paper presents a gait simulation of [...] Read more.
Exploration of the seabed may be complex, and different parameters must be considered for a robotic system to achieve tasks in this environment, such as soil characteristics, seabed gait, and hydrodynamic force in this extreme environment. This paper presents a gait simulation of a quadrupedal robot used on a typical terrigenous sediment seabed, considering the mechanical properties of the type of soil, stiffness, and damping and friction coefficients, referenced with the specialized literature and applied in a computational multibody model with many experimental data in a specific underwater environment to avoi hydrodynamic effects. The requirements of the positions and torque in the robot’s active joints are presented in accordance with a 5R mechanism for the leg and the natural pattern shown in the gait of a dog on the ground. These simulation results are helpful for the design of a testbed, with a leg prototype and its respective hardware and software architecture and a subsequent comparison with the real results. Full article
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