Team ERGO (DII - UNIPI)

🥵 The 35-degree temperature does not stop Team ERGO. 👉 Today, we are celebrating with an exciting experimental campaign at the lake, during which some preliminary tests of underwater acoustic communications have been performed. 🤖 The two autonomous robots involved in the experimentation are the Zeno AUV, an asset of the Crosslab of the Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione - Università di Pisa, and the Marina ASV, realized by the members of the RAASL (the Robotics Automation and Autonomous Systems Laboratory) of the University of Pisa. 📡 The two marine vehicles are equipped with devices designed for enabling acoustic communications. The Marina ASV is endowed with a USBL, while the Zeno AUV mounts an acoustic modem. The idea is to use these devices to implement cooperative solutions for improving the navigation capabilities of the Zeno AUV. ✅ The preliminary experimental activities have been carried out successfully. Further tests will be conducted in September after the summer holidays. 💪 Stay connected to be informed about the incoming activities of Team ERGO!

🥵 The 35-degree temperature does not stop Team ERGO. 👉 Today, we are celebrating with an exciting experimental campaign at the lake, during which some preliminary tests of underwater acoustic communications have been performed. 🤖 The two autonomous robots involved in the experimentation are the Zeno AUV, an asset of the Crosslab of the Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione - Università di Pisa, and the Marina ASV, realized by the members of the RAASL (the Robotics Automation and Autonomous Systems Laboratory) of the University of Pisa. 📡 The two marine vehicles are equipped with devices designed for enabling acoustic communications. The Marina ASV is endowed with a USBL, while the Zeno AUV mounts an acoustic modem. The idea is to use these devices to implement cooperative solutions for improving the navigation capabilities of the Zeno AUV. ✅ The preliminary experimental activities have been carried out successfully. Further tests will be conducted in September after the summer holidays. 💪 Stay connected to be informed about the incoming activities of Team ERGO!

🔊 This week Team ERGO hosted Prof. Rafael Garcia from ViCOROB of the University of Girona, Spain. 👉 During his stay in Pisa, Prof. Garcia led the Ph.D. course titled “Mastering machine learning techniques: application to melanoma detection”. Specifically, the most important notions about machine learning and neural networks have been explained, and the exploitation of these notions for melanoma detection within medical images has been discussed. 🌊 Prof. Garcia also presented several interesting activities that the ViCOROB is carrying out in the field of underwater robotics. This was so inspiring both for the member of Team ERGO and the master students of the “Underwater Systems” course of the Robotics and Automation degree that attended the talk. Thank you very much Rafael Garcia, it’s been an enormous pleasure. We really look forward to pursuing potential collaborations. Team ERGO (DII - UNIPI) Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione - Università di Pisa #teamERGO #underwaterrobotics #computervision #networking

It was really a pleasure to host Georgios Salavasidis from the National Oceanography Centre of the UK. His presentation offered our master students valuable and innovative insights into autonomous underwater exploration in challenging environments. Georgios, thank you very much for the talk! #AutonomousNavigation #AUV #MarineRobotics #NOC

🎬 Entra nel vivo il progetto PANACEA, che si occuperà di sviluppare un sistema robotico autonomo per il monitoraggio delle praterie di Posidonia oceanica. 🎤 Durante il workshop interverranno esperti del settore che parleranno di Posidonia oceanica e del ruolo cruciale che essa svolge per il benessere dell’ecosistema del nostro Mar Mediterraneo. Restate connessi per ulteriori informazioni! #posidoniaoceanica #monitoraggioambientale #robotsubacquei #veicoliautonomi #ecosistema

❓ Did you know that submerged #infrastructures are typically inspected by human #divers, who often have to work in environments characterised by low visibility conditions and strong sea currents, thus putting at risk their own #safety? 🚢 Underwater structure inspection is one of the research topics of Team ERGO, which is currently working to improve the safety and effectiveness of these activities by exploiting #underwater robots and #exteroceptive sensors. 👇 The video shows our Zeno #AUV busy during preliminary experimental test for the validation of our inspection strategy based on optical and acoustic sensors. 🤖 Zeno is an underwater #robot perfectly suitable for inspection tasks as it is equipped with a frontal stereo #vision system that enable to perform visual surveys of targets of interest. Moreover, it is endowed with an #acoustic single-beam echo-sounder, which can be used for avoiding dangerous collisions with the inspected object. 🌰 In a nutshell, the idea is to use the abovementioned sensors to make Zeno able to conduct #autonomous inspection of the target while maintaining a predefined safety distance and ensuring that the perception payload is always orthogonal to the structure. 🔜 Stay tuned for upcoming developments! #TeamERGO #marinerobotics #underwaterrobotics #inspection

Siamo entusiasti di condividere che il Team ERGO si è aggiudicato il premio della giuria popolare durante la projects exposition del PHD+ 2024 con il progetto di ispezione autonoma basata su tecnologie robotiche innovative! Un caloroso ringraziamento al Contamination Lab Pisa - Università di Pisa per aver organizzato questo stimolante corso e per aver creato un ambiente che incoraggia l'innovazione e l'entusiasmo per l'imprenditorialità. Un sentito ringraziamento anche ai docenti Sonia Massari, Luigi Pittalis e Massimo Ciaglia, che hanno condiviso le loro preziose conoscenze e esperienze durante le lezioni. #TeamERGO

Team ERGO is celebrating! 🎉 📣 Today is #WorldSeagrassDay, which is dedicated to an often underestimated but critically important marine #ecosystem: #seagrass beds. 👉🏻 Seagrass meadows are not only beautiful, they also play a crucial role in the balance of the #oceans. They provide essential habitat for numerous marine species, contribute to seafloor stabilization, and play a key role in tackling climate change by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. 🤖 Within this context, robotic technologies such as our Zeno AUV, with their ability to explore the deep sea and collect heterogeneous data, are valuable tools for monitoring seagrass beds. 🌏 Therefore, on this #WorldSeagrassDay, our team invites everyone to reflect on the need to #preserve and #protect these delicate #ecosystems. Let's work together to raise awareness of the importance of seagrass beds and promote concrete actions for their conservation. We are all responsible for our #planet, and protecting seagrass beds is an investment in the future of our common blue #home. #AUV #marinerobotics #oceans #bluehome #seagrass #teamergo

This explains why even in the underwater domain the presence of feature-poor areas (along with adverse visibility conditions) is one of the main factors complicating the realisation of robust and reliable visual odometry solutions.

🧭 Autonomous underwater navigation based on acoustic sensors is one of the main research topics addressed by our Team. 🫧 In this work, we show the impact that gas seepage has on the accuracy of acoustic sensors, and how this affects the navigation performance of underwater robots. Congratulations to Matteo Bresciani for his great achievement! #underwater #robotics #navigation #acoustic