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Marine robotics: A global interdisciplinary approach to the scientific, technological and educational aspects
IAV2004 - PREPRINTS 5th IFAC/EURON Symposium on Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisboa, Portugal July 5-7, 2004
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MARINE ROBOTICS: A GLOBAL INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO SCIENTIFIC, TECHNOLOGICAL AND EDUCATIONAL ASPECTS Gianmarco Veruggio School of Robotics & CNR-Robotlab, Genoa, Italy
Abstract: Robotics is changing our way of living and working, and also our method of conducting scientific inquiry. In the XXI century humanity is going to coexist with the first alien intelligence it has come in contact with - robots. This is going to have important ethical, social and economic implications. In the Robotics landscape, marine applications display uniqueness and specificities that may be profitably universalized. Actually in Marine Robotics technological aspects are tightly connected with scientific ones and, more than for other fields, it needs increasing social support and consensus. Therefore, the Robotlab adopted a new approach in its experimental activity, in cooperation with the School of Robotics, in the fields of Education, Dissemination and Ethics. Copyright © 2002 IFAC Keywords: Robotics, Marine systems, Education, Dissemination, Ethics
the limits of these intelligent machines in relation to intelligent biological beings.
1. A NEW ROBOTICS PARADIGM I would like to propose the idea for which Robotics the Science of intelligent, autonomous machines has now got the credentials s to introduce its own, specific paradigm and methodology.
Therefore we can forecast that in the Twenty-first Century humanity will coexist with the first alien intelligence we have ever come in contact with robots. It will be an event rich in ethical, social and economic problems.
Actually, Robotics is changing our way of working and operating in the world. But more than that, it is changing our method of conducting scientific inquiry and perhaps even our concept of ourselves. Human beings have always built tools to increase their power by eliminating manual labor and needless drudgery. This factor has become one of the keys to successful economic progress, especially since the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of a mechanized economy, and even more so with the introduction of automated machines in the Twentieth Century.
Today’s synergies between Robotics, Neurosciences, Medicine, Education, Psychology, have broaden the scope of application of Robotics as such, making it a platform of global scientific research on humankind, on our Galaxy and on the interaction between humankind and Nature. The initial stage of this discipline - the inchoate and polymorphous phase of an uncertain debut - accounts for the "Tower of Babel" atmosphere which characterizes contemporary Robotics, where specialists from several fields are working side by side, often unable to understand one another's terminology. However, the dynamism of this initial phase explains why Robotics is, culturally speaking, one of the most interesting and exciting fields.
Nowadays, progress in the field of computer science and telecommunications allows us to endow machines with enough intelligence so that they can act autonomously. Robotics scientists therefore must face the task of understanding the potentialities and 508
Moreover, the challenge of replicating a biological organism, in the form of an autonomous machine endowed with intelligence of its own, could contribute to closing the gap between the two cultures C.P. Snow wrote about, and between Geisteswissenschaft and Naturwissenschaft.
networked and modular architecture and by a networked and modular Development Virtual Environment, linked by an Ethernet network. The robot's Control Station can be connected to the system through the Internet, carrying out experiments of remote telerobotics.
As a new science, Robotics is also thoroughly integrated with the development of technology. It is a frontier territory where anyone, even with a limited investment, can create and market new products, obtain valuable patents, and stake out market share.
The E-Robot Project proved the potentialities of the Internet Robotics: Romeo was remotely piloted from Italy by a number of users while hundred of students and scientists could monitor live the field operations and the Antarctic waters explored by the robot. The connection between the remote camp in Antarctica and Italy was managed in collaboration with the CRN SR&T via Inmarsat link. To broadcast all the data, the Project employed 3x64Kps channels. The E-Robot Project included the design of Java interfaces, usable by the general Internet users through a common browser for the remote control by pilot-users and for the observation by observer-users.
2. MARINE ROBOTICS Nowadays our planet has problems that humanity will be able to face and solve only with the help of robots. Robots designed to monitor and protect the environment, and robots able to operate in highly aversive environments -- for instance, by decontaminating sites polluted by poisonous wastes which are dangerous for human health and for the environment, located on inaccessible sea bottoms.
The E-Robot2 Project. In September 2002, thanks to Romeo ROV's control architecture design, some operations at sea in Kongsfjorden, Norway, were remotely controlled via Internet. Through a wireless communication system connecting the supply vessel to the Italian Station, developed in collaboration with CNR-SR&T, it was world-wide possible to connect with Romeo to follow the experiments and even to pilot the robot by means of high level commands.
In this frame, Marine Robotics is directly and forcefully shaped by its environment, the oceans, which is in itself another planet, where humankind cannot live and operate. Moreover, Marine Robotics is in the service of marine sciences, and so tightly connected that the scientific aspects of marine investigations keep up with the technological ones.
This allowed the execution of a number of missions under the control of some teams of Marine scientists from different European countries (from the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban; the Tromso University and the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry and the Institute of the Biochemistry of Proteins and Enzymology of the Council of National Research in Neaples). The scientists and students could, without moving from their laboratories, conduct real-time experiments in the underwater environment of Kongsfjorden.
2.1 The Robotlab (1989-2004) The approach. Robotlab's different research themes are integrated in a multidisciplinary laboratory for the study and development of complex robotic systems, equipped with sensing, propulsion, and manipulation devices capable of operating in less structured environments characterized by uncertainty. Robotlab developed robotic prototypes which are successfully exploited in important international projects.
This campaign had two main goals: To conduct a set of preliminary dives in various sites in the Kongsfjorden, to test the equipment and the methodology and to give the Marine scientists a preliminary set of data to plan a more systematic investigation in the future years; To test and demonstrate the effectiveness of the remote control of the robots employed in extreme environment for tele-science applications, along the methodology already employed in the E-Robot Project, carried out during the 2001-02 PNRA expedition to Antarctica.
The prototypes. Robotlab has produced a family of underwater robotic vehicles (UUV, Unmanned Underwater Vehicles) that are employed as experiment test-beds in the real world for testing NGC (Navigation Guidance and Control), previously tested in the Lab simulation environment of the UVW (Underwater Virtual World). Two of the Robotlab's prototypes, Roby and Romeo, have been exploited in Marine Science applications in several campaigns in the Mediterranean Sea, in Antarctica and in the Arctic Sea, carrying modular and interchangeable sub-systems for specific operative missions. The E-Robot Project. In the frame of the XVII PNRA (National Research Program in Antarctica) Italian Expedition 2001-02 at Terra Nova Bay Station, the Robotlab carried out the E-Robot Project, employing the underwater robot Romeo in the ABS-Antarctic Benthic Shuttle Project for the development of new methods of marine exploration. The Romeo System consists of an underwater robotic prototype for scientific research, characterized by a
3.
SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
Marine Robotics is a very hard field of research. Not only because the sea depths are inaccessible to humankind, but also because its importance is not often easily understood (and not immediately expressible in terms of business). On the other side, Marine Robotics needs huge investments and resources, lacking which it becomes almost 509
impossible to carry on our researches. All these factors compelled many of us to interwoven our scientific activity and operations to the fabric of society, be it industry, services, and end-users of several type.
There are many brilliant societies for the promotion of Robotics among high-school students, most of them associated to important Universities and Laboratories (NASA, Carnegie Mellon University, Boston MIT). From our Laboratory, the School of Robotics was born, whose mission is to promote Robotics at every school grade up to the college. (http://www.scuoladirobotica.it)
3.1 Need of general social support and consensus. I would like to introduce the idea that this relative “disadvantage” of Marine Robotics ca be turned in one of its “vantage”, and that we embark ourselves in a continuous and well targeted efforts to create the widest possible social support and consensus. Modern scientists can no longer expect to live their lives in proud isolation because most significant scientific research requires substantial funding.
Learning about Robotics is important not only for those students who want to become Robotics engineers and scientists, but for every student, because it provides a strong method of reasoning and a powerful tool for grappling with the world. As a matter of fact: Robotics collects all the competencies needed for designing and constructing machines (Mechanics, Electrotechnics, Electronics), computers, software, systems of communications, and networks. The special features of Robotics boosts student creativity, communication skills, cooperation, and teamwork. Learning about Robotics promotes students' interest in and commitment to traditional basic disciplines (Math, Physics, Technical Drawing).
Firstly, like Space Robotics, but even more exoteric, Marine Robotics have to created its own “social slope”. Society and its arm of action, government, has to understand that our science has the chance to solve a large number of problems. A fortunate few enjoy private sources--problems with benefactors are another story. But in most cases government support, that is, tax money, is required to get research started and to keep it from grinding to a halt. When especially large sums are involved, taxpayers can be inquisitive, cost-conscious, and prone to finding fault, and in a democracy they must be taken into account.
Certainly we do not propose to add another subject, Robotics, to the existing curriculum. Our goal is to introduce interdisciplinary educational modules about Robotics into current educational programs, exploiting communications and information technologies. In this way we can establish experimental teaching projects in individual schools and also, throughout networks of schools, at the national and international levels.
In this, dissemination of our results is key. Taxpayers will be more willing to pay taxes if they know that their money will be invested in beneficial scientific and technological researches This will help laboratories, which will more readily obtain funds for research which is generally considered useful and important for society. An informal science education movement, driven by scientists, offers people of every age and status opportunities for life-long learning, entertainment, and debate based on exploration of the physical and technological world. It aims to make the world of science a little more inviting, democratic, and friendly and a little less obscure and distant. In doing so it draws minds, particularly young minds, to science.
E-Robot experiments The possibility to perform the E-Robot experiment on any Internet connected PC allowed to involve students and schools, promoting the knowledge of the Robotics and of the ICT. The educational activities, organized by the Robotlab in collaboration with the Space Foundation and the School of Robotics, included live links with the schools and the First Robotic Student Competition. This was won by the Institute “ Galileo Galilei” of Arezzo, Italy, with an infrared digital camera. The device was set up on Romeo, and on Dec, 12th, 2002, the winners could watch and pilot the experiment from their school in Arezzo, shooting pictures of the Antarctic seabed explored by the robot.
3.2 The School of Robotics Internationally, many are recommending a closer interaction between science and education. Everywhere, educators are discovering the merit of using an inquiry-based approach in which student initiative, experimentation, practice, and conceptual learning are intertwined. Societies and private institutions for the promotion of science are strategic allies in the science education movement, as they help teachers integrate formal and non-formal ways of learning about science into their curricula.
4. THE NEED FOR A ROBOETHICS Following the principle of adopting a permanent dissemination factor for Robotics, the same goes for the need to open a debate on the ethical basis which should inspire the design and development of robots, to avoid problems incurred by other human activities, forced to become conscious of the ethical basis under the pressure of grievous events. It is important to avoid the spread of misconceptions
One of the privileges of being a scientist brings obligations to stay open and alert to dialogue in the public domain, among educators and in the media, and to develop communication channels between the world of science and the larger world.
510
among the general public about the alleged dangers posed by Robotics and its products (as it is to combat ignorance about every other manifestation of scientific and technological progress). On the contrary, by opening a productive debate based on accurate right insights and real knowledge, people could take an active part in the education of public opinion able to comprehend the positive uses of the new technology, and prevent its abuse. 4.1 The First Symposium on Roboethics To open a debate, among scientists and scholars of Sciences and Humanities, the School of Robotics organised the First International Symposium on Roboethics, which took places at Villa Nobel, Sanremo, Italy, 30 and 31 of January, 2004. The Symposium was an opportunity to encounter scientists and scholars committed to discuss new and sensitive problems that humankind is glimpsing at the horizon. Philosophers, jurists, sociologists, anthropologist and moralists, together with robotic scientists, met to lay the foundations of the Ethics in the design, development and employment of the Intelligent Machines, the Roboethics. 5. REFERENCES
511
*** DRAFT ***
MARINE ROBOTICS: A GLOBAL INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO SCIENTIFIC, TECHNOLOGICAL AND EDUCATIONAL ASPECTS Gianmarco Veruggio School of Robotics & CNR-Robotlab, Genoa, Italy
Abstract: Robotics is changing our way of living and working, and also our method of conducting scientific inquiry. In the XXI century humanity is going to coexist with the first alien intelligence it has come in contact with - robots. This is going to have important ethical, social and economic implications. In the Robotics landscape, marine applications display uniqueness and specificities that may be profitably universalized. Actually in Marine Robotics technological aspects are tightly connected with scientific ones and, more than for other fields, it needs increasing social support and consensus. Therefore, the Robotlab adopted a new approach in its experimental activity, in cooperation with the School of Robotics, in the fields of Education, Dissemination and Ethics. Copyright © 2002 IFAC Keywords: Robotics, Marine systems, Education, Dissemination, Ethics
the limits of these intelligent machines in relation to intelligent biological beings.
1. A NEW ROBOTICS PARADIGM I would like to propose the idea for which Robotics the Science of intelligent, autonomous machines has now got the credentials s to introduce its own, specific paradigm and methodology.
Therefore we can forecast that in the Twenty-first Century humanity will coexist with the first alien intelligence we have ever come in contact with robots. It will be an event rich in ethical, social and economic problems.
Actually, Robotics is changing our way of working and operating in the world. But more than that, it is changing our method of conducting scientific inquiry and perhaps even our concept of ourselves. Human beings have always built tools to increase their power by eliminating manual labor and needless drudgery. This factor has become one of the keys to successful economic progress, especially since the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of a mechanized economy, and even more so with the introduction of automated machines in the Twentieth Century.
Today’s synergies between Robotics, Neurosciences, Medicine, Education, Psychology, have broaden the scope of application of Robotics as such, making it a platform of global scientific research on humankind, on our Galaxy and on the interaction between humankind and Nature. The initial stage of this discipline - the inchoate and polymorphous phase of an uncertain debut - accounts for the "Tower of Babel" atmosphere which characterizes contemporary Robotics, where specialists from several fields are working side by side, often unable to understand one another's terminology. However, the dynamism of this initial phase explains why Robotics is, culturally speaking, one of the most interesting and exciting fields.
Nowadays, progress in the field of computer science and telecommunications allows us to endow machines with enough intelligence so that they can act autonomously. Robotics scientists therefore must face the task of understanding the potentialities and 508
Moreover, the challenge of replicating a biological organism, in the form of an autonomous machine endowed with intelligence of its own, could contribute to closing the gap between the two cultures C.P. Snow wrote about, and between Geisteswissenschaft and Naturwissenschaft.
networked and modular architecture and by a networked and modular Development Virtual Environment, linked by an Ethernet network. The robot's Control Station can be connected to the system through the Internet, carrying out experiments of remote telerobotics.
As a new science, Robotics is also thoroughly integrated with the development of technology. It is a frontier territory where anyone, even with a limited investment, can create and market new products, obtain valuable patents, and stake out market share.
The E-Robot Project proved the potentialities of the Internet Robotics: Romeo was remotely piloted from Italy by a number of users while hundred of students and scientists could monitor live the field operations and the Antarctic waters explored by the robot. The connection between the remote camp in Antarctica and Italy was managed in collaboration with the CRN SR&T via Inmarsat link. To broadcast all the data, the Project employed 3x64Kps channels. The E-Robot Project included the design of Java interfaces, usable by the general Internet users through a common browser for the remote control by pilot-users and for the observation by observer-users.
2. MARINE ROBOTICS Nowadays our planet has problems that humanity will be able to face and solve only with the help of robots. Robots designed to monitor and protect the environment, and robots able to operate in highly aversive environments -- for instance, by decontaminating sites polluted by poisonous wastes which are dangerous for human health and for the environment, located on inaccessible sea bottoms.
The E-Robot2 Project. In September 2002, thanks to Romeo ROV's control architecture design, some operations at sea in Kongsfjorden, Norway, were remotely controlled via Internet. Through a wireless communication system connecting the supply vessel to the Italian Station, developed in collaboration with CNR-SR&T, it was world-wide possible to connect with Romeo to follow the experiments and even to pilot the robot by means of high level commands.
In this frame, Marine Robotics is directly and forcefully shaped by its environment, the oceans, which is in itself another planet, where humankind cannot live and operate. Moreover, Marine Robotics is in the service of marine sciences, and so tightly connected that the scientific aspects of marine investigations keep up with the technological ones.
This allowed the execution of a number of missions under the control of some teams of Marine scientists from different European countries (from the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban; the Tromso University and the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry and the Institute of the Biochemistry of Proteins and Enzymology of the Council of National Research in Neaples). The scientists and students could, without moving from their laboratories, conduct real-time experiments in the underwater environment of Kongsfjorden.
2.1 The Robotlab (1989-2004) The approach. Robotlab's different research themes are integrated in a multidisciplinary laboratory for the study and development of complex robotic systems, equipped with sensing, propulsion, and manipulation devices capable of operating in less structured environments characterized by uncertainty. Robotlab developed robotic prototypes which are successfully exploited in important international projects.
This campaign had two main goals: To conduct a set of preliminary dives in various sites in the Kongsfjorden, to test the equipment and the methodology and to give the Marine scientists a preliminary set of data to plan a more systematic investigation in the future years; To test and demonstrate the effectiveness of the remote control of the robots employed in extreme environment for tele-science applications, along the methodology already employed in the E-Robot Project, carried out during the 2001-02 PNRA expedition to Antarctica.
The prototypes. Robotlab has produced a family of underwater robotic vehicles (UUV, Unmanned Underwater Vehicles) that are employed as experiment test-beds in the real world for testing NGC (Navigation Guidance and Control), previously tested in the Lab simulation environment of the UVW (Underwater Virtual World). Two of the Robotlab's prototypes, Roby and Romeo, have been exploited in Marine Science applications in several campaigns in the Mediterranean Sea, in Antarctica and in the Arctic Sea, carrying modular and interchangeable sub-systems for specific operative missions. The E-Robot Project. In the frame of the XVII PNRA (National Research Program in Antarctica) Italian Expedition 2001-02 at Terra Nova Bay Station, the Robotlab carried out the E-Robot Project, employing the underwater robot Romeo in the ABS-Antarctic Benthic Shuttle Project for the development of new methods of marine exploration. The Romeo System consists of an underwater robotic prototype for scientific research, characterized by a
3.
SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
Marine Robotics is a very hard field of research. Not only because the sea depths are inaccessible to humankind, but also because its importance is not often easily understood (and not immediately expressible in terms of business). On the other side, Marine Robotics needs huge investments and resources, lacking which it becomes almost 509
impossible to carry on our researches. All these factors compelled many of us to interwoven our scientific activity and operations to the fabric of society, be it industry, services, and end-users of several type.
There are many brilliant societies for the promotion of Robotics among high-school students, most of them associated to important Universities and Laboratories (NASA, Carnegie Mellon University, Boston MIT). From our Laboratory, the School of Robotics was born, whose mission is to promote Robotics at every school grade up to the college. (http://www.scuoladirobotica.it)
3.1 Need of general social support and consensus. I would like to introduce the idea that this relative “disadvantage” of Marine Robotics ca be turned in one of its “vantage”, and that we embark ourselves in a continuous and well targeted efforts to create the widest possible social support and consensus. Modern scientists can no longer expect to live their lives in proud isolation because most significant scientific research requires substantial funding.
Learning about Robotics is important not only for those students who want to become Robotics engineers and scientists, but for every student, because it provides a strong method of reasoning and a powerful tool for grappling with the world. As a matter of fact: Robotics collects all the competencies needed for designing and constructing machines (Mechanics, Electrotechnics, Electronics), computers, software, systems of communications, and networks. The special features of Robotics boosts student creativity, communication skills, cooperation, and teamwork. Learning about Robotics promotes students' interest in and commitment to traditional basic disciplines (Math, Physics, Technical Drawing).
Firstly, like Space Robotics, but even more exoteric, Marine Robotics have to created its own “social slope”. Society and its arm of action, government, has to understand that our science has the chance to solve a large number of problems. A fortunate few enjoy private sources--problems with benefactors are another story. But in most cases government support, that is, tax money, is required to get research started and to keep it from grinding to a halt. When especially large sums are involved, taxpayers can be inquisitive, cost-conscious, and prone to finding fault, and in a democracy they must be taken into account.
Certainly we do not propose to add another subject, Robotics, to the existing curriculum. Our goal is to introduce interdisciplinary educational modules about Robotics into current educational programs, exploiting communications and information technologies. In this way we can establish experimental teaching projects in individual schools and also, throughout networks of schools, at the national and international levels.
In this, dissemination of our results is key. Taxpayers will be more willing to pay taxes if they know that their money will be invested in beneficial scientific and technological researches This will help laboratories, which will more readily obtain funds for research which is generally considered useful and important for society. An informal science education movement, driven by scientists, offers people of every age and status opportunities for life-long learning, entertainment, and debate based on exploration of the physical and technological world. It aims to make the world of science a little more inviting, democratic, and friendly and a little less obscure and distant. In doing so it draws minds, particularly young minds, to science.
E-Robot experiments The possibility to perform the E-Robot experiment on any Internet connected PC allowed to involve students and schools, promoting the knowledge of the Robotics and of the ICT. The educational activities, organized by the Robotlab in collaboration with the Space Foundation and the School of Robotics, included live links with the schools and the First Robotic Student Competition. This was won by the Institute “ Galileo Galilei” of Arezzo, Italy, with an infrared digital camera. The device was set up on Romeo, and on Dec, 12th, 2002, the winners could watch and pilot the experiment from their school in Arezzo, shooting pictures of the Antarctic seabed explored by the robot.
3.2 The School of Robotics Internationally, many are recommending a closer interaction between science and education. Everywhere, educators are discovering the merit of using an inquiry-based approach in which student initiative, experimentation, practice, and conceptual learning are intertwined. Societies and private institutions for the promotion of science are strategic allies in the science education movement, as they help teachers integrate formal and non-formal ways of learning about science into their curricula.
4. THE NEED FOR A ROBOETHICS Following the principle of adopting a permanent dissemination factor for Robotics, the same goes for the need to open a debate on the ethical basis which should inspire the design and development of robots, to avoid problems incurred by other human activities, forced to become conscious of the ethical basis under the pressure of grievous events. It is important to avoid the spread of misconceptions
One of the privileges of being a scientist brings obligations to stay open and alert to dialogue in the public domain, among educators and in the media, and to develop communication channels between the world of science and the larger world.
510
among the general public about the alleged dangers posed by Robotics and its products (as it is to combat ignorance about every other manifestation of scientific and technological progress). On the contrary, by opening a productive debate based on accurate right insights and real knowledge, people could take an active part in the education of public opinion able to comprehend the positive uses of the new technology, and prevent its abuse. 4.1 The First Symposium on Roboethics To open a debate, among scientists and scholars of Sciences and Humanities, the School of Robotics organised the First International Symposium on Roboethics, which took places at Villa Nobel, Sanremo, Italy, 30 and 31 of January, 2004. The Symposium was an opportunity to encounter scientists and scholars committed to discuss new and sensitive problems that humankind is glimpsing at the horizon. Philosophers, jurists, sociologists, anthropologist and moralists, together with robotic scientists, met to lay the foundations of the Ethics in the design, development and employment of the Intelligent Machines, the Roboethics. 5. REFERENCES
511