Merbots project: overal description, multisensory autonomous perception and grasping for underwater robotics interventions

Abstract

[Abstract] The MERBOTS project is, at the moment of writing the present article, in its third year, and have already obtained most of the expected results, from both lab and sea field trials. The project is being coordinated by the Jaume I University (i.e. IRS Lab), jointly with the University of Girona (i.e. CIRS Lab), and University of Balearic Island (i.e. SRV Group). Recent results demonstrate the viability to perform semi-autonomous cooperative interventions in underwater scenarios for archaeological applications. In this paper, first of all an overall description of the project is given, and then some results belonging to the UJI subproject are explained in more detail, such as communications and, in a more detailed manner, the autonomous perception and grasping modules.