Artificial Intelligence and Robotics EU-MOP Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Dennis Fritsch Fraunhofer-Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) Athens, June 2006

Introduction The EU-MOP robots should be able to response to oil spills autonomously. Autonomously means that each unit will have an energy system and an oil skimming device as well as that the EU-MOP units will make its own decisions how to response to the oil spill. Thus, each unit needs (artificial) intelligence, which will be given to the units with the help of sensors and control systems.

Control of the EU-MOP units In order to achieve an highly robust and flexible oil response system the swarm intelligence approach has been selected as control paradigm for the EU-MOP robots. Thus, the EU-MOP swarm is a homogeneous group of robots without any hierarchies or central control system.

Control of the EU-MOP units Example: Oil spill in a harbour, several very small patches of oil have to be recovered:

Control of the EU-MOP units Strategy of each robot:

Control of the EU-MOP units 4 following robots 1 robot moving random paths oil pier

Control of the EU-MOP units obstacle occurs

Control of the EU-MOP units swarm 1: 1 following robots 1 robot moving random paths swarm 2: 2 following robots 1 robot moving random paths

Control of the EU-MOP units swarm 1 and swarm 2 merge, but the “leading” robot has a malfunction.

Control of the EU-MOP units swarm will again be split into two swarms with each 1 “leading” robot and 1 following robot. Thus, the EU-MOP system will be very flexible and fault-tolerant.

Sensors for the EU-MOP robots Nevertheless, the EU-MOP robots will need several sensors, e.g.: for the detection of oil or the measurement of the thickness of the oil spill, for absolute or relative positioning of itself, its neighbours, all other units, the mother ship, etc., for the detection of collisions with other units, shipwrecks, debris etc., for winds, currents, etc., for the internal state of the unit (malfunction, full of oil, energy low etc.) as well as a communication system for communication with other units, with the mother ship and with a human operator.

Sensors for the EU-MOP robots Sensors might increase the performance of the robots, nevertheless, sensors also have disadvantages, e.g.: increased costs increased weight and volume increased consumption of power increased amount of information that has to be processed Thus, the question is: What is the best sensor configuration for the EU-MOP robots? And related to that: What are the best strategies in order to response to the oil spill. These questions will be answered with the help of the simulation technique.

Simulation of the EU-MOP robots Architecture of the simulation

Simulation of the EU-MOP robots Oil Fate model

Simulation of the EU-MOP robots Robot / Swarm Simulation

Simulation of the EU-MOP robots Visualisation water oil slick harbour coast

Simulation of the EU-MOP robots Visualisation 1 unit

Simulation of the EU-MOP robots Visualisation

Simulation of the EU-MOP robots Visualisation

Simulation of the EU-MOP robots Visualisation

Simulation of the EU-MOP robots Visualisation

Simulation of the EU-MOP robots Visualisation

Simulation of the EU-MOP robots Comparison of two types of swarms: swarm A consists of units without oil sensor swarm B consists of units with oil sensor. type B: will be able to move intelligent type A: will not be able to move intelligent

Simulation of the EU-MOP robots Comparison of two types of swarms: Conclusion (for this scenario) The larger the swarm the better the recovery time. The better the sensor configuration the better the recovery time. Nevertheless, the swarm without oil sensors reaches for large swarm sizes more or less the same recovery time as the swarm with oil sensor. Swarm size (N) 1 2 3 4 5 10 20 Recovery time of swarm A 52627 20496 16843 14170 13207 5564 2905 Recovery time of swarm B 37293 14416 11360 9132 8134 4026 2860

Conclusion The simulation will be able to determine the recovery time, the energy consumption, the quantity of recovery oil the quantity of oil that polluted the coast, etc. These date will be the basis for an assessment of the EU-MOP units, and for a cost-benefit-analysis. Thus, this proceeding will ensure that the EU- MOP consortium will develop a highly effective, flexible and robust oil response system.