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EURODOCKER
Underwater
robot's home
Launch
of the Eurodocker, the home base for UAVs used by commercial
oil exploration and marine biologists.
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Eurodocker
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Launching
an underwater robotic submarine has always been a
kind of little adventure. Especially under harsh
sea conditions has the leak of maneuverability
more than ones stop underwater works. Eurodocker
is to be the solution to this problem. In a way
similar to the docking platform of a space
shuttle, the Eurodocker is a power station home
base for robotic submarine AUVs (Autonomous
Underwater Vehicles).
Eurodocker
is to be used as a homebase for UAVs used by
commercial oil exploration and marine biologists.
While underwater exploration will start from the
Euodocker, the UAVs can at any time access the
homebase to recharge and upload data before
leaving again to continue about their assigned
tasks.
We
all remember the old way which means for the UAV
to start from the surface and to come to the
surface again and again for uploading or tool exchanging
procedures. More than once have expensive UAVs
been damaged during this procedure by the crane
used to pull them out of the water.
The
Eurodocker allows the robot to stay underwater and
through the use of automated data exchange, tool
interchange and uploading mechanism reducing the
need of human interaction.
Project
Description :
This RTD project
is funded by the European Commission, DG XII under the
Marine Science and Technology programme MAST and is
a common development of :
- The
Underwater Technology Center UWTH
of the Institute of Materials Science IW
at Hannover University, Germany.
GISMA Underwater Connectors in Neumünster, Germany
- MARIDAN
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles A/S in Hoersholm,
Denmark
- The
Department of Automation IAU
at the Technical University of Denmark
- Studio Tre
in Treviso and S.A.T.E.
in Venice, Italy
- ORCA
Instrumentation
in Brest, France
The EURODOCKER
project aims at designing, manufacturing and testing an
underwater docking system for AUVs, relevant to
re-energizing (not limited to batteries recharging) and
data transfer (survey downloading, re-programming,
etc.). It will allow exploiting to the utmost the
enormous possibilities now offered by the AUV
technology, offering cost effective research, surveying
and monitoring. The success of the EURODOCKER will
contribute to make underwater vehicles really autonomous
and efficient all around the world. Indeed, the project
aims to realize a practical standard DDLR system; in
this first phase, work is concentrated on studying and
identifying the requirements of underwater support to
AUVs, suited to the wide set of vehicles now under
successful development.
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Underwater
Tests
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Tests
Launch in Kiel (Germany)
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Article Reference : 002051
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ROBOTICS
NEWS 
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