Reconfigurable distributed software platform for a group of UUVs (yet another robot platform)

Abstract

This paper deals with the design principles and implementation of a reconfigurable real-time software platform designed for data exchange between software modules of unmanned underwater and surface vehicles. The aim of developing a new robotic platform was the realization of a light-weight OS-independent library that allows integrating AUVs, ROVs and surface vehicles to a single computing cluster. The advantage of the developed system is the possibility of information interaction through the low-speed and unstable acoustic channel. It should be noted that the developed platform does not require any additional tools or software modules in the robot control system. All that is needed is a single library for inter-process communication, data logging and web-based graphical user interface. The developed system is used in several autonomous and remotely operated underwater vehicles, designed at the Institute for Marine Technology Problems and Far Eastern Federal University. The graphical user interface of this platform is based on the mechanism of web sockets and is compatible with the Robot Operating System.