Unmanned Ground Vehicles for Coastal Monitoring

Abstract

The article covers the developed unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) for coastal monitoring with special modular structure, allowing to set different movers (wheeled, tracked, rotary-screw). The mobile robot can be used in a variety of climatic and landscape conditions of coastal zones, including conditions of the Arctic shelf and the Arctic coast, which is a very urgent task due to active melting of glaciers and development of natural resources in the Arctic. Recently, one of the most efficient means for hydrodynamic measurements, determination of speed and sizes of drifting ice and evaluation of coastal hazards is remote sensing by means of radars. Complex of measuring equipment in addition to the circular scanning radar consists of lidars, video cameras and a weather station. Mathematical models and algorithms for processing experimental data, recalculation of landwash from data on heights of waves far from the shore, determination of the threshold values of heights of waves far from the shore have been developed. There has also been developed the program complex for functioning of the experimental prototype of UGV, comprising the following modules: data loading module, reporting module, module of georeferencing, data analysis module, monitoring module, hardware control module, graphical user interface. Evaluation of the efficiency of the UGV has been carried out. The UGV was used to experimental investigations of coastal zones of the Okhotsk Sea and inland reservoirs. Further work will be focused on study of characteristics of the ice regime and identification of factors that determine the character of drift ice on the south-eastern coast of Sakhalin Island.