Project name: Unmanned system for maritime security and environmental monitoring
Project acronym: MORUS
Dates: 01.04.2015 - 28.02.2019
Total budget: 834,929.00 EUR
Funding: NATO Science for Peace
Grant Agreement number: 984807
website: www.fer.unizg.hr/morus
MORUS
The main goal of the MORUS project is the design and development of a fully operational complex robotic system prototype comprised of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) capable of autonomous and cooperative mission executions related to environmental, border and port security.
The proposed research is part of an internationally competitive field, with the main objective to design and develop an autonomous aerial and marine robotic system which is capable of collective engagement in missions taking place in dynamic and nondeterministic environments.
MORUS objectives are summarised as follows:
- Design and construction of an UAV with docking and transportation mechanisms,
- Visual-feedback-based docking and gripping algorithm,
- Design of an augmented-reality and easy to operate human-machine interface for simultaneous control of aerial and marine robots,
- Enhancement of the autonomous navigation capabilities and operational supportability in remote locations with little or no local support,
- Agile UUV redeployment through cooperation with an UAV,
- Data exchange between the UUV and UAV through cooperative control and estimation.
Project partners:
- Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing
- University of Limerick
- University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Electrical Engineering
- Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing
- University of Dubrovnik
Project MORUS 2nd Workshop and General Assembly were held at FER from February 2nd to 10th 2017. All partners in the project participated in the preparation and execution of this workshop. The goal of the MORUS project 2nd workshop was twofold: first, UAV roll and pitch control loops, implementing a moving mass concept, were tested, together with the low-level state machine. Second, the integration of the Human Machine Interface with a high-level state machine and overall system communication have been done.
Upon successful integration of hardware, software and communication components of the MORUS system, major functionalities have been tested through the HMI. Gazebo simulator was used as a virtual world where UUV and UAV models executed missions by mimicking inputs from real vehicles, while at the same time high-level controllers on real vehicles received positions from the simulator.