“The Challenges of Autonomous Sub-Ice Navigation and Field Robotics in Antarctica”

Thursday, Nov. 30 @ 1:00 pm, Larsen 310

Anthony Spears is a computer vision researcher in the R&D department at Prioria Robotics

Abstract

Antarctica provides an ideal testing ground for candidate technology targeted to future Europa missions. However, current commercial unmanned underwater vehicle platforms and navigational technology is not feasible for use in these environments. Presented here is the development and Antarctic deployment of the custom Icefin sub-ice unmanned underwater vehicle, specifically designed to meet such challenges. Also presented is a method for sub-ice visual navigation using sonar and camera sensors with a factor graph sensor fusion framework to combine estimates from these noisy but partially redundant sensors. The challenges and lessons learned in such sub-ice and Antarctic field robotics will be discussed.

Biography

Anthony Spears is a computer vision researcher in the R&D department at Prioria Robotics, where he is involved in several R&D projects sponsored by the U.S. DoD and NASA. Anthony earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Florida in Gainesville. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. There, he specialized in underwater robotics and computer vision applications.
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