Towards specification, planning and sensor-based control of autonomous underwater intervention*

Abstract This paper presents our recent advances in specification, planning and control of autonomous manipulation actions in underwater environments. The user first specifies the task to perform on a target object found on a seabed image mosaic previously obtained. Then a suitable vehicle position and arm configuration is planned in order to guarantee a successful manipulation. After the vehicle reaches the planned destination, the actual view of the object is matched to the one used for the specification, and the grasp points are tracked, enabling visual servoing of the manipulator end-effector. This allows the arm to compensate for the vehicle motion, thus increasing the reliability of the reaching action. Preliminary experiments done in a simulated environment demonstrate the viability of this approach.

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