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- Design of Communication and Control for Swarms of Aquatic Surface DronesPublication . Christensen, Anders Lyhne; Oliveira, Sancho; Postolache, Octavian; Oliveira, Maria João de; Sargento, Susana; Santana, Pedro; Nunes, Luis; Velez, Fernando J.; Sebastião, Pedro; Costa, Vasco; Duarte, Miguel; Gomes, Jorge; Rodrigues, Tiago; Silva, FernandoThe availability of relatively capable and inexpensive hardware components has made it feasible to consider large-scale systems of autonomous aquatic drones for maritime tasks. In this paper, we present the CORATAM and HANCAD projects, which focus on the fundamental challenges related to communication and control in swarms of aquatic drones. We argue for: (i) the adoption of a heterogeneous approach to communication in which a small subset of the drones have long-range communication capabilities while the majority carry only short-range communication hardware, and (ii) the use of decentralized control to facilitate inherent robustness and scalability. A heterogeneous communication system and decentralized control allow for the average drone to be kept relatively simple and therefore inexpensive. To assess the proposed methodology, we are currently building 25 prototype drones from off-the-shelf components. We present the current hardware designs and discuss the results of simulation-based experiments involving swarms of up to 1,000 aquatic drones that successfully patrolled a 20 km-long strip for 24 hours.
- Experimental Characterization of WSNs Applied to Swarms of Aquatic Surface DronesPublication . Velez, Fernando J.; Nadziejko, Aleksandra K. N.; Christensen, Andersen; Oliveira, Sancho; Rodrigues, Tiago; Costa, Vasco; Duarte, Miguel; Silva, Fernando; Gomes, JorgeANCAD project aims at developing technologies and communication protocols for swarms of aquatic inexpensive surface drones. The goal is to perform maritime tasks such as sea border patrolling or environmental monitoring, keeping the cost of the drones low. The exchange of information within the swarm is essential for the success of the mission. The most recent solution for control and communications within the current prototypes are supported by Raspberry Pi 2 and XBee-PRO S1 allowing for low power consumption while expanding the range of transmission. Field trial results enabled to verify the potential of the proposed solution, in terms of coverage range and multi-hop capabilities, in actual maritime scenarios.
- Wireless Sensor and Networking Technologies for Swarms of Aquatic Surface DronesPublication . Velez, Fernando J.; Nadziejko, Aleksandra; Christensen, Anders Lyhne; Oliveira, Sancho; Rodrigues, Tiago; Costa, Vasco; Duarte, Miguel; Silva, Fernando; Gomes, JorgeIn this paper, we discuss wireless sensor and networking technologies for swarms of inexpensive aquatic surface drones in the context of the HANCAD project. The goal is to enable the swarm to perform maritime tasks such as sea-border patrolling and environmental monitoring, while keeping the cost of each drone low. Communication between drones is essential for the success of the project. Preliminary experiments show that XBee modules are promising for energy efficient multi-hop drone-to-drone communication.