Enhancing autonomous capabilities and human-robot interaction for Unmanned Surface Vehicles

In the context of autonomous exploration and observation of water areas by means of Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), this work describes the improvements developed with respect to the advanced mission control system and the integration with multiple and modular sensing devices, in particular underwater cameras and sonar systems. The experimental proof of the concept validity is obtained testing the overall framework on the CNR-ISSIA Charlie USV. Moreover, to enhance the interaction capabilities between human operator and autonomous platform, different driving and commanding devices, including multi-purpose reconfigurable console and smartphone applications, have been developed and integrated with the already existing architecture. Data gathered from the experimental campaign carried out in Murter (Croatia), within the Breaking The Surface 2011 training field, are reported. © 2012 IEEE.